Leasehold and mortgages and location

fimonkey

If, as I'm now convinced, it is all about location location location, then I'm going to be a FTB of a leasehold flat in a good area as opposed to a freehold property in a not so good area (I'm looking at postcodes BH5 and BH23 and my maximum budget is 150K).

Re: leaseshold, what's the maximum it needs to be to be able to get a mortgage on it? At what point would I need to re-negotiate a new lease and who's responsibility would that be, the buyer or the vendor (on a property with say, 75 yr lease).

What else do I need to consider (Grount rent and maintenance charges right? anything else?)

Any questions I should ask of the vendor (or other leasholders) in terms of the maintenance, upkeep etc?

To be honest I'm not too enamoured with the idea of leashold, seems like you buy a part of a property but never really own it. Is leashold in a good area really better than freehold in a not so good area? Do you always have to ask permission of freeholder for absolutely everything? (i.e adding to/updating property)

Cheers

zipwen1

hi don't know if this will help but im buying a leasehold apartment in a listed building we will be paying 80pm service charge a percentage of which goes into a fund for major maintenance work that may need doing this charge includes house insurance so we don't need to get that, 50py ground rent and we also have to pay a deposit of 500 when we sign the agreement.

id ask the vendor what the service charge is, what it includes and what the ground rent is.
also ask if the management co have a fund set aside for any major work, or how they finance any work that needs doing.
and ask if they would ask for a deposit or initial provisional service charge when the lease is signed as we only found this out a couple of days ago and we were a bit miffed
as for asking permission for updating the property all this will be stated in the lease ask if you can see the vendors copy
ours is quite strict and states that we must do certain work at certain times and get permission for everything even tv points and cable
the mortgage question i dont, know but i dont think that with 75 years remaining it would be a problem getting a mortgage for it

cattie

What you have to remember is with flats, leashold is the norm. It is houses that are normally freehold. Sometimes flats in converted houses have share of freehold, but you still have a lease.

Your lease will state what improvements etc you need to ask the freeholder's permission for, but leases can be quite quirky. For instance, one place I owned stated that you needed the freeholders agreement on the colours you wanted to decorate your rooms in. Of course nobody ever bothered about this. Leases will often state that you must have carpet on the floors, this is really so noise is kept to a mininum for neigbours, but in this day & age many people have wooden or laminate floors without getting permission from the freeholder.

Generally people will only seek the freeholders permission if they want to carry out some stuctural alterations to the property in my experience.

I wouldn't say leasehold is like buying part of a property without ever owning it. All the leasehold flats in London I've owned have been snapped up & shown me a very healthy increase on the price I paid.

fimonkey

I'm thinking if I did go for a leasehold in a good location, I'd ideally prefer it to be a converted house with maximum of 4 flats. I'm very particular though, I DEFINATELY want a garden I can work in myself, with enough room for a shed. (For this reason I'm avoiding blocks of flats with communal gardens) And ideally I'd prefer share of freehold... is this advantagous compared to leasehold?

zipwen1

http://www.clsdirect.org.uk/legalhelp/leaflet05.jsp?section=8&lang=en http://www.exclusivelondon.co.uk/leasehold_freehold_property.htm
found this, might help you with your questions