FTB: How difficult is it to extend a lease? Is there something wrong with this flat?

JUNIPER

Hi there,

I am a FTB and recently saw a property that I was interested in buying and just wanted a second opinion.

The property in question is a leasehold 2-bedroom Victorian converted flat in London. From Zoopla, I found out that the property has been on the market since summer 2012, when it was initially asking £325K, and over the months (now almost a year!) has been reduced to £300K. The area has a buoyant property market, with properties of this kind being under off/sold within 2-3 weeks of coming onto the market, so as you can imagine, being on the market for almost a year is quite unusual and has been a cause for concern.

The property is lovely and in a great condition - fairly modernised and non-offending, with no work required. Based on a calculation of price per square footage, it is slightly more expensive than many of its comparables, however it is in a very desirable location.

From the EA, I'm led to believe that a buyer placed an offer that was accepted around Christmas 2012, but had to pull out due to job changes. During my first viewing, the EA stated that the flat had 85 years left on its lease and when asked why he thought that the property hadn't sold, used that as the main reason.

When I asked if the EA could ask the sellers to contact their freeholder for a quote to extend the lease, he came back with a "ballpark figure" of £10K to extend to 125 years. With this in mind, I decided to put in a first offer which included the seller to go halves with me on paying the lease extension to 125 years as I wanted them to be part-responsible, hoping that this would motivate them to see through the completion of the extension. This was rejected and after another increased offer and this time just asking the sellers to initiate the extension process and to transfer this to me so that I could complete it with me to pay all the costs, this was also rejected. After the second viewing, the EA tells me that the sellers have since found out that there is actually 95 years left on the lease (I'm thinking that the property has been on the market for so many months and only NOW they've just found this bit of information out??) and so the sellers do not think the lease needs to be extended.

So it looks as though the sellers do not in any way want to get involved in anything to do with the lease. For me, if I were to purchase the property, I'd ideally still want the lease to be extended and to be sorted now (as the £10K valuation will most likely increase in two years' time when I'd have the legibility to extend).

So my question is, is it a fairly straightforward process to extend the lease? From researching online and asking solicitors, it seems as though it should be and could even been completed in a space of 6 weeks. If that was true, I can't understand why the sellers want nothing to do with it, even if I'm footing the bill. Am I missing something here?

FYI, the sellers are not in a chain, and I have a feeling (from my observations) that this property is their second home and so maybe this is why they're not so concerned about pushing for a sale.

All of the above took place about 2 months ago and the property is still on the market - do you think I should go in with a third offer now or walk away? I really like the property and haven't found anything else that I've liked (I've been looking since October last year).

Sorry my post is so wordy, but any comments would be appreciated!

richardw

They may not be getting good lease advice and the EA's 'advice' might be getting in the way of some clear thinking.

If you are planning to live there much more than two years, just make them a best and final offer for things as is and put some money aside to start the lease extension in 2015/16.

You wouldn't have any Marriage Value arguments in 2015/16 because the lease length would still be more than 80 years remaining.