Buy Your Freehold - guide discussion

Janzzz

Joanthebone wrote: »

Hi again, I started off hoping for an informal agreement

Thank you so much for your reply.
Informal agreement trough surveyor sounds like a good plan.
Our situation is a bit complicated, because we paid maintenance charges between £3000- £4000,- a year! So, around £35k in last 10years and in last 8 years they ignore the water damages caused by outside cracks on the building - so, we will ask for part of the maintenance fee back or in exchange for lease extension.
...we don't know if we should keep those things separately or if this is a good strategy plan.
Hopefully the surveyor will tell us more.
Thank you very much

Janzzz

eddddy wrote: »

Broadly, there are 2 ways of extending a lease...

Dear Edddy,
one more thing please... the calculator you suggested on lease-advice_org/calculator/
Is it from Leashold to Freehold?
I can't find any calculator where I would be able to select an option to extend the lease by 90 years only. I don't need a freehold... with the 90years extra the flat would have 144years lease.
Thank you very much

Joanthebone

Hi Janzz, I found the The Leasehold Advisory Service very helpful. You should be able to use their calculator for extending the lease 90 years.

Another thought I have had - If you want to sell anyway, the purchasers need to own the property for two years before they can extend the lease, but, as I understand it, if you start the lease extension process, the buyers can pay for the lease extension, that way you would get a good price and not have so much worry....? If you live in an area in which your type of property is in demand this might work for you? Its worth asking your surveyor about this possible option.

Its a few years since I did my extension and I might be wrong about the above and stand to be corrected! but it might be worth you investigating?

Janzzz

Joanthebone wrote: »

Hi Janzz, I found the The Leasehold Advisory Service very helpful. You should be able to use their calculator for extending the lease 90 years.
Another thought I have had - If you want to sell anyway, the purchasers need to own the property for two years before they can extend the lease, but, as I understand it, if you start the lease extension process, the buyers can pay for the lease extension, that way you would get a good price and not have so much worry....? If you live in an area in which your type of property is in demand this might work for you? Its worth asking your surveyor about this possible option.
...

Dear Joan,
you are completely right. We just found what you have said... so, it's great to hear from you.
If we start the process, buyer can continue or if we agreed on the cost of the extension, it might be paid from the sale price directly to freeholder on completion date. ...this is great news for obvious reasons.
In regards of the 90 years... The Leasehold Advisory Service is great, but I don't know if the calculator is only for the 90years extension or 999years lease extension/buying a freehold? Because the difference can be big, we might just extended by 90 years.
Thank you for your replies... it's great to have such a great support here

Joanthebone

Hi Janzz, good luck with it, and do let us know how you get on?

Janzzz

Joanthebone wrote: »

Hi Janzz, good luck with it, and do let us know how you get on?

I'll, thank you

Janzzz

Hello again,
the freeholder and his surveyor is refusing to give us the valuation for the statutory extension, saying that they don't allow that and we have to buy the 999years=share of freehold
If I'm not wrong, I think it's our legal right to extended by 90years... isn't it?
Thank you

eddddy

Janzzz wrote: »

Hello again,
the freeholder and his surveyor is refusing to give us the valuation for the statutory extension, saying that they don't allow that and we have to buy the 999years=share of freehold
If I'm not wrong, I think it's our legal right to extended by 90years... isn't it?

You are discussing an 'Informal Lease Extension' with your freeholder. There are no laws, regulations, rules etc that apply to that.

The terms (and the price) can be anything that you and the freeholder can agree on.

The freeholder cannot force you to agree to a 999 year extension, and you cannot force the freeholder to agree a 90 year extension. In fact, nobody can force the other party to agree to anything.


But instead... as a leaseholder, the law gives you a completely different option called a 'Statutory Lease Extension'. A statutory lease extension adds precisely 90 years to the term of your lease, and reduces your ground rent to zero. The price of the extension is calculated by a statutory formula.

A statutory lease extension might take 6 to 18 months to complete and cost £3k to £5k in legal/valuation fees.

It's a completely different process from an 'Informal Lease Extension'.

Janzzz

eddddy wrote: »

You are discussing an 'Informal Lease Extension' with your freeholder. There are no laws, regulations, rules etc that apply to that.
... A statutory lease extension might take 6 to 18 months to complete and cost £3k to £5k in legal/valuation fees. It's a completely different process from an 'Informal Lease Extension'.

Thanks so much @eddddy

Joanthebone

Hi Janzz, If you want to sell anyway, why not go for the 999 years and share of freehold? The buyer will be paying and I would have thought that would be more attractive to a potential buyer too?

I think our own leasehold surveyor will be the best person to give you advice now.