leasehold stress

irwellgirl

Hi
I posted around a month ago to say that my buyer was demanding that I extend the leasehold on my house to 999 years (was 99 years!).

We are now in the middle of the process but having no support from the solicitor who is really difficult to gain contact with, never mind get information from!

Anyway the local council are the owner of the leasehold and they have started the process and gained approval from the local ward councillors- however to add to my stress they are now saying that the 'safe room' has asbestos and access cannot be gained into this room (!!!)- this is where the documentation is stored for the lease- they have a scanned copy on the computer system... there are no plans for gaining access to the room at present...

Just wondering if anyone knows whether the process will need direct access to the original documentation or if I need to be putting the house back on the market (again!!! bo ho)

Jamman960

Not sure on the documents side of things but would it be possible to get the council to put it in writing that they would have no problems extending the leasehold once they have access to the documents and then deduct however much its going to cost from the price of the house?

irwellgirl

Ah- yes that was the initial plan and we have already negotiated a price reduction to factor that in!

NOW a month on- even though they were involved in the decision- the council have said that such a letter is not possible- they can’t produce an ‘open ended’ approval letter....it has to be done at the time the current Ward Councillors have been consulted.

SO frustrating

DRP

999 years!!

your buyer clearly has long-term plans!

irwellgirl

I know!!!!:rotfl:

If he hadn't made such a great offer I would walk away now...but there are now 2 more houses on the street up for sale so not a great time to go back on the market.

Aardy

What's your ownership on the house? You say you are selling it yet the council are the leaseholder? Are you the leaseholder and the council the freeholder?

Also Land Registry should hold a copy of all lease documents, TP1's or deeds. If you go on their website you can download a copy for about £25.00. I presume you mean their safe at the council offices are where the lease is held? If it has asbestos then the council should have this tested every year so unless they have just moved in, they should have known about it!?

In terms of your buyer, demanding a 999 lease is a bit... well, much. If the lease is extended it could end up costing you a lot of pennies. Depends on how much the freeholder wants to extend it. To be honest a lot of leases are created on a 125yr basis, so 99 years left is fine and should not devalue the property. Of course having 999 years will improve the value of the property and make it easier for buyers to get a mortgage (as the risk is reduced to the lender).
I would question why the buyer wants the extension? There's no harm in asking.

Abs

irwellgirl

Quick update on this in case anyone finds themselves in a similar situation.

The Council were the Head Leaseholder (holding a 1000 year lease) and the Freehold was owned by a private estate.

The Council assigned the remainder of their 1000 year head lease to the property for a cost of £150 (plus their legal fees of £500).

I thought this was very reasonable for a lease extension of circa 900 years.

DVardysShadow

Dunno how this got through without the usual suspects commenting. There is a legal right to extend a lease by 99 years IIRC. Wanting extension to 999 is usually up there with the moon on a stick, although obviously not in this case.