Please help - Freeholder wants £15000 for deed of variation

getsmart1968

I am selling a leasehold flat. I have a buyer with a buy to let mortgage. We were supposed to exchange on 6th December.

The freeholder sent an email to the buyers solicitor saying he wanted £6000 for a deed of variation so that the buyer could sublet the flat for the duration of the mortgage (20 years) - the buyer was annoyed but agreed.

Then the day we were supposed to exchange the Freeholder 'out of the blue' said he now wanted £20000 for the deed of variation. My solicitor negotiated this amount down to £15000 - and just to try get the sale done I agreed to pay £7500 - so the buyer would only have to pay £7500 himself.

The buyer says he does not trust the Freeholder now and has pulled out.

The lease says no subletting without prior consent. I have been letting the property out for 3 years now with Freeholders consent - we pay a yearly admin fee £199 (I think).

I am putting the property back on the market, but because it is a very good investment flat, we will come across this problem again if we get a buyer with a buy to let mortgage.

I do not understand the actions of the freeholder - there is a chain of five properties all dependent on the sale of my flat!

Is there anything I can do?
Can I take the freeholder to a tribunal to get the £15000 reduced?
Can a freeholder basically block a sale like this?

Any help or advise would be welcome

Regards
AB

dell12

As with all things like this it comes down to your lease.

Usually it will set out what is or isn't considered a reasonable level of charges.

eddddy

Have you asked your solicitor to read the lease, and give his/her opinion?

You say:

getsmart1968 wrote: »

The lease says no subletting without prior consent.

As long as it says that in the lease, the Landlord & Tenant Act 1927 section 19(1) says that the freeholder`s consent should not be unreasonably refused. And the onus is on the freeholder to show that a refusal is reasonable.

(You would be in a far worse position if the lease simply said "no subletting".)

And this article says that the Lands Tribunal have ruled that the fee for consent should be about £40: http://www.leaseholdknowledge.com/sub-letting-fees-should-not-be-more-than-40-landlords-are-told-four-times-by-the-land-tribunal

Also, have a look at this link:
http://www.newsontheblock.com/service-charges/16677/your-rights-when-subletting.thtml

But I wonder why your solicitor didn't tell you this. Perhaps there are more complications in your specific case.