Buy Your Freehold - guide discussion

globalgirluk

Hi there

I am trying to renew the lease on a maisonette that has 39 years left on it. I have been quoted a colossal £67500 to renew. I'm wondering if I should just go for purchasing the freehold

Any advice greatly received

Cheers xxx

GTG

Under the right to enfranchise (buy the freehold) you need 50% of the residents in your block to want to buy the freehold with you. The cost to buy the freehold will be split between the number of leaseholders willing to participate. If all the maisonettes have the same lease length, are identical properties and all leaseholders are willing to enfranchise then the cost to buy the freehold will probably be not much more than to buy the freehold.

At that price I would guess you are in the south east and possibly within the M25

RonShelf

I'm negotiating with the freeholder of the land on which my house is situated to buy the freehold from them. When a price is agreed, do I really need a solicitor and, if so, how much could I expect to end up paying them?

Moneyaddict

Dear Sir,

I have read your post on MSE and thought you will be the best man to advice me. I bought a leasehold flat in converted house in 2006. My flat is on the first floor and there is another flat on the ground floor. The lease holder at the ground floor flat sold the flat to a man in 2013, the man then traced the Freeholder of the property with the intention of buying the freehold. He bought the freehold in 2013 and accordinf to him, he tried to contact me with regards to the purchase but unfortunately i was in Dublin and my Tenants refused to pass on my contact numbers.

I am interested in the share of the Freehold. Can i force him to sell the share to me and how? Also, i have always had an insurance on my property. He only made it known to me that he insured both flats in 2014. He wants the share of the cost from 2013 which i refused. Does he have any right to demand this money? I have just received a letter from him demanding that i confirm if my flat has fire alarm and if do not get back to him in 10 days, he will send installers to my flat and invoice me. Does he have any rights to that? Please help. Thank you Sir.

af2909_2

Evening all.

Am currently in the midst of using section 3 of 1987 landlord and tenant act to obtain the freehold via an acquisition order.

The district judge awarded the acquisition order just under a year ago (but this needed to be amended under the slip rule - don't ask ) and also gave directions to be valued at the first tier tribunal (which again needs amending).

We have finally had the valuation by the appointed surveyor, who has included marriage value, even though the 1987 act states:

"(2)Where an application is made under this section for [F10the tribunal] to determine the consideration payable for the acquisition of a landlord’s interest in any premises, [F10the tribunal] shall do so by determining an amount equal to the amount which, in their opinion, that interest might be expected to realise if sold on the open market by a willing seller on the appropriate terms and on the assumption that none of the tenants of the landlord of any premises comprised in those premises was buying or seeking to buy that interest."

In the tribunal case - http://www.lease-advice.org/decisions/8587pdf/1001-2000/1159.pdf

"6.2 Section 31 does not provide for marriage value and, therefore, the tribunal did not consider this in their valuation"

My sols advised me that in the report (which he has not forwarded) the surveyor has stated that marriage value has been added as (a) the purchasers are aware of the 1993 act and (b) that's standard practice that is followed when making a valuation

My sols has said that he has asked for answers, as the 1993 act has no relevance in the premium.

My question is as follows (apologies, I'm a bit uptight so it's long winded )

Would I be correct in assuming that the surveyor has got confused, and interpreted the formula literally i.e. "your purchasing and you know about the 1993 act"?

Would I be correct that the surveyor should follow directions that are set, those being to calculate a premium using the 1987 act methodology?

Is the surveyor acting outside of their allocated remit, as the district judge has judged that we meet the terms of the acquisition order? By this I mean that they should apply the methodology, as the methodology is the means of calculating the premium, not a means of judging as to whether we meet the criteria to proceed with the order.

Thanks in advance.:money:

Lemonsqueezer78

Hi All,

Wondering if anyone could explain what my future options might be in the following scenario.

Looking to buy a flat valued at around £330,000 - leasehold, with a lease length of around 175 years, with peppercorn ground rent. It's one of 3 flats in a converted building, with the Freeholder being an owner of one of the other flats.

My question is, what are my options/rights in future if I wanted to buy a share of the freehold? I'm not so worried given the long lease and zero ground rent, so this is more hypothetical.

Am I right in thinking that as the Freehold is already owned by one of the flat owners, that I would not be making an application to purchase the freehold under the housing act, but instead I would be just asking the current freeholder to sell a share to me?

Can they refuse - or do I have a right to buy a share of the freehold subject to agreeing a value?

In a scenario with 3 flats, one owned by the freeholder, do I need to go in to this with the owner of the other leasehold flat in the block - or can I approach the freeholder on my own?

Any idea's how a share of the freehold would be valued in this case?

Thanks for your help!

Lemonsqueezer78

Anyone able to give any advice?

Joanthebone

Hi, I can only suggest that you contact the Leasehold Advisory Service.


This page may help first...


http://www.lease-advice.org/publications/documents/document.asp?item=11

Gloria_Edwards

Hi! I am in thinking of purchasing the freehold of my property due to extortionate rent increases by the Local Authority and have been granted the option of deferment i.e. the council sells me the freehold reversion for £7,000 plus their costs subject to contract with the clause that if the property is either sold or ownership is transferred then the council will take a legal charge on the property requiring payment on sale or transfer of a sum of money equivalent to the proportion that £7000 bears to the freehold market value of the property at the date of written acceptance of the offer for example if my property is currently worth £100,000 then 7% of the sale proceeds will be paid to the council.and also I will pay a cost of £100. to cover council's costs for initial valuation! I am worried that by going down this route then at a future date that the council could choose to sell my deferment to another landlord or I could be subject to other vulnerabilities! I would appreciate your views on this! Many thanks

GTG

Extortionate rent increases by the LA? They can only increase your ground rent by the amounts and at the intervals specified in your lease! If the terms are as onerous as you say then it begs the question why did you buy the leasehold property in the first place?