Buy Your Freehold - guide discussion 8 March 2012 at 2:54PM edited 30 November -1 at 1:00AM in House Buying, Renting & Selling 192 replies 50.8K views

bmar71n

i believe that over half of you need to participate, i am unsure whether this is over half the floor area or half the occupants. But if you apartment is bigger than there's you may be able to force it on them, but it won't make you very popular with your neighbor...

Freeholder

Can you give any advice on buying the freehold for our property (it is not a flat) e.g. how much would we expect to pay and how would be go about it.

hello_smiley90

I recently had a letter from the builder of my flat saying that they were selling the Freehold but by law they have to offer it to the leaseholders of the block first. The sum for the block is £29,250 and there are 6 flats within the block. One of my neighbours has approached me already expressing an interest that we purchase the Freehold ourselves to give more control over maintenance/lease extensions etc... This sounds good but I can't afford it. If they decided to go ahead with the purchase of the lease could they increase maintenance costs? Could they reduce them for themselves i.e. I pay £800 a year now could they keep me paying this if they reduce their amount to say £400 a year.

Any advice would help.

kat-m_2

My landlord has served a formal notice to all leaseholders for the sale of the freehold. Both myself and the other leaseholder is interested and we have agrred to a 50% ownership of the freehold. How do I raise funds? Can I borrow additonal money on my current mortgage for the leasehold flat in order to make the purchase? I ask because I have been contacted today by the solicitor dealing with the purchase of the freehold and informed that I cannot use additional borrowing as a means of payment, even though the additional borrowing is secured on my leasehold property and not the freehold. Is this right or has the solicitor got crossed wires?

I am unable to contact anyone as it is now out of hours - any advice welcome so I can stop worrying!

lozzaw

Hi, I would be interested in knowing if it is possible to estimate the sale price of a flat before and after purchasing the freehold. We have already started the process of purchasing our freehold, and been told by our solicitor the value of our property after the purchase would be £600,000. We think that seems high for a 2 bedroom flat, although it is London. The current lease is only 73 years and the purchase of the freehold will cost us £44000, which we don't have and would need to increase our mortgage to fund. We are seriously considering therefore selling the flat now, as somebody else in our block has just managed to do. What we are trying to understand is if that is logical, or would we be better off waiting, purchasing the freehold and selling then.

lardeedeedar

I inquired about buying the Freehold to our house (not flat) in 2006 (bought in 2000). The owner of the leasehold stated their price but said they couldn't currently help as it was with UK probate (following the death of a US citizen that must have also owned it. They advised I contact a neighbours solicitor who was also dealing with the same issue. They cc'd the solicitor into the letter.

I had previously spoken with and written to the neighbour they mentioned, stating I too wanted to buy our freehold (they'd confirmed to me who to write to in the first instance). They had written back to say they had also been given a price and that the solicitors fees would need paying and mentioned shared costs. I had verbally agreed with them this would be fine and we would be happy to do this. I asked them for a price in writing but heard nothing back. I figured I'd leave it a while as nothing must be happening and forgot about it.

The other day I realised that we hadn't paid any ground rent for a few years (previously they used to collect every 2-3 years). By chance I bumped into the neighbour I had spoken to and written to about buying the Freehold. He was now divorced and they were selling the house. He let slip he was selling their Freehold with the house and was considering selling the freehold to 2 adjacent properties. I wasn't aware from him prior to this that he had proceeded with the purchase of the Freehold as he had never got back to me re: solicitors fees. I also couldn't understand how he owned more than his own to sell. I later caught him off guard and asked him who owned our Freehold and he informed me that our next-door neighbour (his friend!) had bought the Freehold to the remaining properties, including ours (they had each bought 4 Freeholds each).

Not only can I not believe he cut me out, but how can he legally conspire with our next-door neighbour and how is it that have they bought the Freehold to our house in that deal, without us knowing? Especially when I had written to the leasehold owner stating interest and given the fact their solicitor had also been informed we wanted to buy it???

Is this legal and correct? What do I do next? I still have copies of the letters...:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

drivememad

Hi,
Can anyone help with my dilema. Been in my current house since 2004, in 2005 I enquired about buying the freehold. The freeholders are the local council and the current lease is 99 years from 1967. At the time the freehold cost £500 to purchase, plus the councils costs.

My dilema is my house is now up for sale, I believe that mortgage companies will not give a mortgage on a house with less than 50 ish years on the lease. I wrote to the council regarding the purchase of the freehold and they now want £4800 plus costs. I also asked about an option to extend and they have offered to extend the lease for a further 50 years at an annual ground rent of £338 which will increase over time.

Can anyone advise me on the direction I should take? Should I take a loan out to buy the freehold or should I extend the lease and leave it for the new owners to purchase the freehold. I'm not sure how this may be viewed and if it would put off prospective purchasers.

Help:eek: Please

tim123456789

drivememad wrote: »

Hi,
Can anyone help with my dilema. Been in my current house since 2004, in 2005 I enquired about buying the freehold. The freeholders are the local council and the current lease is 99 years from 1967. At the time the freehold cost £500 to purchase, plus the councils costs.

My dilema is my house is now up for sale, I believe that mortgage companies will not give a mortgage on a house with less than 50 ish years on the lease. I wrote to the council regarding the purchase of the freehold and they now want £4800 plus costs. I also asked about an option to extend and they have offered to extend the lease for a further 50 years at an annual ground rent of £338 which will increase over time.

Can anyone advise me on the direction I should take? Should I take a loan out to buy the freehold or should I extend the lease and leave it for the new owners to purchase the freehold. I'm not sure how this may be viewed and if it would put off prospective purchasers.

Help:eek: Please

If I tell you that the nominal value of the new ground rent is about 7K, what you you think you should do?

tim

drivememad

tim123456789 wrote: »

If I tell you that the nominal value of the new ground rent is about 7K, what you you think you should do?

tim

Well Tim, I've no idea, and I'm not sure I understand your reply I'm afraid. Nominal value 7K? If its an outlay for me of £338 compared to an outlay of £4800 then the £338 per annum given I'm selling the house seems like a no brainer, but it's whether for sale purposes I should just take the hit on the purchase of the freehold. Apologies if I'm being thick for not understanding your reply <blush> Best regards, Julie

tim123456789

drivememad wrote: »

Well Tim, I've no idea, and I'm not sure I understand your reply I'm afraid.

werll the choice is:

1) Pay 5K now and zero ground rent forever

or

2) pay 338 ground rent for the next n years and then pay 7K plus perhaps 3k to buy the lease in the future.

do you think that a prospective buyer will thank you for choosing option 2?

(and do you think that it will make your property worth less)