Strange leasehold situation

picklepick

Firstly, apologies if this is difficult to understand. It's a strange situation and I'm finding the implications hard to grasp. I also know that our solicitor is the one to ask for advice but it's bank hol weekend and I'll be in a tizz by Tuesday! So any light that anyone can shed on this would be great.

We are in the process of buying a freehold house with garden. However, we discovered today that the last 10 feet of garden is leasehold. The land being council owned. Our solicitor is currently trying to get hold of the map relating to the leasehold for clarity.

There is a service lane which runs the length of the road beyond the end of the garden. I suspect the 10 foot piece of land originally had a garage siuated on it.

We were told that there is 60 years left of the 99 year lease and the ground rent is a paltry £1 per year! Hardly bank breaking.

We have to ask permission from the leaseholder to erect a structure on the land. We were hoping to put a wooden workshop there. Does anyone think they're likely to refuse this?

Now, the solicitor has said that we can take over the lease for £100 plus pay the legal fees for dealing with it. What would happen if we refused to take over the lease? Surely the council aren't likely to come along and fence off 10 feet of garden?!

The remaining years on the lease are also of concern to me.

I'm annoyed because we weren't aware of the leasehold land when we viewed the house and the solicitor has said he has to make it known to the morgage valuer.

picklepick

Anyone know anything at all?

princeofpounds

It is quite common for councils to end up owning 'verges' like these, and also quite common for householders to try to steal them by enclosing them.

Councils have a legal duty not to give land away or permit loss through encroachment, but of course such strips of land are pretty useless to them and cost money to maintain. So often the solution is to arrange some kind of license or lease. The council has no maintenance bill and the householder gets a longer garden.

SleeplessinScandinavia

Reminds me of my previous home - which was originally leasehold (the council was the freeholder) - but we bought the freehold from them and erected a garden shed.

Years later, when we came to sell, the buyers' solicitor noticed a list of 'restrictive covenants' in the deeds - one of which stated that no garden shed should be erected anywhere on the property:eek:
However, the council agreed to the 'breach' of the restrictive covenant in return for a payment of £50.

Not much to pay admittedly, but its irritating to realise that you've been in breach of an agreement; I would check carefully that there are no such restrictions in what you can use the land for, if you take it on