Please could someone give advice

Wendy1_2

My parents live overseas, they are buying a flat here with the very distant possibility of moving back in the distant future.
They are on a very tight budget, and are buying a £99,000 flat with their savings that are still over here.
To keep their costs down and as they won't be getting a mortgage , would a survey still be necessary and would solicitors search that costs £300 be necessary.
Also, as the flat is leasehold, I do believe is a long lease but what are the implications if it is short, and then who does it go back to after the lease is up?
Many thanks
Wendy

bs0u0128

ALWAYS GET A SURVEY

its a false economy not to. you have a 50:50 chance of getting away with it, if you do you save x hundred pounds, if you dont, you risk spending 10s of 1000s of pounds

ive had surveys on new houses, show houses ( on the outside of it with rubbish structures) and old houses, no house is 100%. Also, searches are necessary if you dont want to risk a couple of yrs down the line finding out something nasty, if not months!!

not buying these things really is silly imo. spend 500 and spend 99000 safely? or save 500, spend 99000, then spend 20000 on something the survey would have let you know about before committing?!

Doozergirl

It would be false economy to scrimp on surveys and searches. Your parents are spending nearly £100,000 on an item. Searches and surveys are there to ensure that all that money is a good investment and, come on, it would cost less than 1% of the purchase price to have piece of mind.

No brainer for me.

With regard to lease, you need to consider how long your parents are planning to own the flat for. At the end of the lease, the flat would revert to the freeholder, but after two years of ownership, a leaseholder can force a 90 year lease extension anyway. If the lease will drop below 80 years in that time, then they should renew the lease before it gets to that point as it is cheaper.

Shorter leases are quite a complicated issue and I'd be happy to offer any advice I can, but it's probably easier if you check how long the lease is and post back.