Buying Flat, 950yr lease need advice

Fire_Fox

tim123456789 wrote: »

3) As per previous answer you should expect to see previous years' accounts as part of the conveyancing process. This will enable you to see if the money is well spent or not

Agree good to see accounts but IME they are of limited value in a block that is largely tenanted and poorly managed. I had to move in here (was tenanted when I first purchased), write several letters of complaint, get copies of all the invoices and service contracts before I discovered we were being scammed by our cleaners and caretaker. I couldn't tell that from the summary accounts.

In our case the window cleaning was contracted and invoiced monthly but not done in at least nine months, corridors contracted and invoiced twice a week but done once a month, caretaker claimed so much for replacement halogen lamps he could have changed all the bulbs in the common parts twice a week for an entire year. :eek:

dimension7

Thanks all for the tips so far.

From land registry obtained title. I dont understand what most of it means the registered owner and proprietor is a church. Title is a good leasehold. The title is all too full of legal jargon for me to understand.

(03.04.1970) Short particulars of the lease(s) (or under-lease(s)) under which the land is held:
Date : 1 December 1964
Term : 999 years from 25 December 1961
Rent : £15
Parties : (1) Donald Smith Limited
(2) George Rushton

The landlord's title is registered.

Land_Registry

The schedule you have included contains the following information

(03.04.1970) Date when first registered i.e. when application to register waas received by Land Registry Short particulars of the lease(s) (or under-lease(s)) under which the land is held:
Date : 1 December 1964 Date of actual lease
Term : 999 years from 25 December 1961 the term as you already appreciate
Rent : £15 the rent
Parties : (1) Donald Smith Limited
(2) George Rushton the original parties to the lease. (1) would have granetd the lease to (2)

The landlord's title is registered. The title out of which the lease was granted is also registered - this may be the freehold title or a head lease.

The details of the lease are set out in this way as the register and lease are read hand in hand. By referring to the original details you should be able to match the lease to the register/flat

As the title changes hands the details of the actual registered owner will change in the B Proprietorship register. You already know that the church is the owner it seems.
To confirm the landlord's identity you would need to identify that title and check the Proprietorship entry on that register

SecondTimeBuyer

dimension7 wrote: »

Ok I have been to the property and rang the bells of most flats. What I found was the 50% didn't answer the door and the curtains were drawn, so probably no one was in. The rest were tenants, not leaseholders. I could not locate a single flat owner/leaseholder. All flats that answered were rented out. Some of them are on social housing so they had no idea about bills or rent as it was all paid for by whoever, they didn't care. All tenants claimed that their landlord was private, not housing association.

I think that the tatty condition of the common areas is explained off because no one cares, the dwellers don't care as they rent and the owners don't care as they don't dwell at the property.

I could not find out how the lease is managed etc.

How does the above situation affect the flat price? The person who paid his rent himself said he paid £500 pm excluding bills.

Overall the tenants were ok, except for one woman who slammed the door on my face, but she was in the adjacent side ground floor far from the flat on sale.

Alarm bells would be ringing and there is no way I would want to buy a property in that block. If the tenants don't care whats to stop them continually dumping rubbish in the stair well, or having all night parties as they know they will be leaving in a few weeks. Definitely not one I'd want to buy!

dimension7

@Land Registry representative

To confirm the landlord's identity you would need to identify that title and check the Proprietorship entry on that register

How do I identify that title please. I do not have the lease at hand, can I identify this from the current title document. I am happy to share the pdf file with you if you can help. Thanks.

@SecondTimeBuyer

Alarm bells would be ringing and there is no way I would want to buy a property in that block. If the tenants don't care whats to stop them continually dumping rubbish in the stair well, or having all night parties as they know they will be leaving in a few weeks. Definitely not one I'd want to buy!

I understand the concerns you have raised. Unfortunately I am on a severely limited budget and the current tenants seem ok. I have paid a few visits there to check for noise etc. That said I know there is nothing stopping bad tenants from moving in. I have lived in a shared house for the past 5 years and developed a lot of tolerance. My main concern with this property is the approachability of the freeholder and the current leaseholders and what is happening to the £1200 a year service charge. Tenants change frequently with time, the leaseholders and freeholders wont.

Fire_Fox

Search for the title of the building using the block address (Oak Heights Leafy Street), just as you searched for the title using the flat address (Flat 6 Oak Heights Leafy Street).

dimension7

Search for the title of the building using the block address (Oak Heights Leafy Street), just as you searched for the title using the flat address (Flat 6 Oak Heights Leafy Street)

Thanks, tried that but it does not work. Tried also searching for post code alone which finds 12 titles one for each flat. Interestingly all titles including the one for sale list two titles one with tenure leasehold and another with tenure freehold. Perhaps its the freehold one I should be buying?

Land_Registry

It is the freehold one you would be viewing/buying so you are correct to use the online service. You simply need to be selective re the options offered.

Simply select the freehold information attached to your flat's address. The register should then refer to a schedule of leases which would list each flat along with their registered leasehold title.

The B Proprietorship register will then reveal the freehold owner - there is no need to post a pdf of the current information.