First time buyer short lease issues

nebular

Hello all,

So I'm interested in buying a flat in a block of 6 for myself and my partner. We are new to house buying but are lucky enough to be buying cash. The flat is listed as having a share of freehold with 2 of the other flats in the block. When i enquired about the length of lease of the flat the agent told me that as it was share of freehold there was no lease. Due to my inexperience and naivety I took this as turth, so put in an offer which has now been accepted. Doing further reading i find this to not be the case a and after much chasing i find out the lease is actually 61 years! Im not really sure where i stand with my offer etc, even though the agents assures me it wont cost, i know from reading that this is not the case, fees etc and there could be the possibility of difficult joint freeholders. I'm thinking i should try and talk to the neighbours about it before going ahead with any legal work. Any advice would be really appreciated. Thankyou:)

cattie

It could cost, but the price, if any, for extending will need to be agreed between all 3 owners having a share of the freehold.

If you could talk to the other freeholders before going any further, that would be ideal. Failing that, if you could find out somehow how long they each have left on their lease, it would be valuable information. If they each have only 61yrs remaining, then it is unlikely that any of them will want to put too high a figure on each lease being extended.

Was the flat marketed at a low price compared to other properties in the area just out of interest ?, as if it was it's quite likely that the vendor had an idea that there was likely to be a cost for extending the lease.

You are very wise to try to get to the bottom of this before starting the legal work, as although this is the kind of thing a solicitor will investigate for you as part of the buying process, you will of course be paying him for the work.

Richard_Webster

Tell the seller that you are withdrawing your offer unless the lease is extended as part of the deal.

You tell him/the EA that it should be straightforward for them to organise because they all know each other in the block and get on - don't they?

(Quite possibly there is a problem in getting a lease extension so the seller may be trying to cover it all over, or doesn't even realise he needs one!)

(EA is useless if he thinks there aren't leases. Perhaps he is the mythical person that Propertyman is seeking....)