Argh House sale falling apart

natlie

Hi All,


I accepted an offer on my house on the 17/03 £5k under asking price. The house is leasehold with 80 yrs left on lease (this is ground lease only not a property lease).


The buyers solicitor has told them that the house is not a good investment as the lease is short. I have given them the cost of the purchase of the freehold £7k they have now said they will go half on the lease with me. Now I am not interested in this - it means I will accept £106,000 on a house originally valued at leasehold for £115,000 I have told them I am not interested.

They haven't come back to me but now feeling panicked!!!!!


Nat

ACG

Is it still on the market?
Ask the agent to get confirmation on whether it is still proceeding or not, if they have not heard back within 24 hours it is going back on the market/they will be actively promoting it again.

EDIT: On a side note, it does not matter what it was originally on for, if it was overpriced then the EA is the one to blame for that, not the buyer. But i dont know whether that is the case or not.

ethank

I would tell them that lease position is reflected in the price that you accepted. 5k under market value - £2k left - £1k each?

cattie

Very few ea's fully understand very much about the whole process surrounding lease extensions or purchasing the freehold of. So quite often when they do a valuation, unless the lease is so short that no lender will grant a mortgage on it (say 50 yrs), their valuation will be no different whether a freehold or leasehold property.

The buyer's solicitor is only doing his job in warning the buyer that the property is not a good buy with only 80yrs now remaining on the lease & you have to bear in mind that if you lose this sale, then you could find yourself in the same situation with another buyer.

Leases with less than 80yrs remaining are not considered good buys unless property price is cheap enough to reflect the cost of extension.

TBagpuss

I think cattie is correct. Are you in a position to sort out the lease extension now, so you don't keep hitting the same problem? Alternatively, get the agents to re-write the particulars to reflect the fact that the asking price takes into account the (relatively) short lease.