buying roof terrace form freeholder or seek to buy the freehold

jayroc2k

We live in a Victorian property that has been converted into 4 flats. I and the neighbour above me want to extend the property to the back to gain an additional bedroom.

This means buying the lease to the patio space at the back of the property, the freeholder sold this patio space to another company which they own (same address and directors). And they want us to make them an offer in the "five figures" range.

What are our options:
1: negotiate and buy the lease at a price they want without having much leverage as they can seek what ever price they want

2. buy the freehold with the other leaseholders and buy off the patio space from them (enfranchisement).

in the second case, will the patio lease currently assigned to the third party pass unto us if we buy the (share of) freehold or will the third party still remain a leaseholder and still have the option to charge what they want

princeofpounds

There may only be one seller, but don't forget there is only one buyer too. The land is worth little to the freeholder undeveloped. It is not such an unequal situation, although the land clearly has value.

If you buy the freehold, that will not cancel the lease that has been put in place on the desired land.

You should also remember that if you buy the freehold as a group then the two leaseholders who are not extending into this space are probably still going to want to charge a price for leasing the land to the two of you that are extending.

MikeBrown123

What about asking the directors who currently own it, to build the extension and add it to your property so its a lot cleaner from a contract / ownership point of view?

if this is not possible I would try and get the leasehold of the patio area added to your current leasehold and then build on it yourself, but make sure the contracts are clean and neat otherwise potential buyers will walk away from it if half the house is on a different lease / deed from the other half.

hope that makes sense and helps out a bit!

jayroc2k

thanks,

so just to be clear, even if we the leaseholders buy the freehold, the lease on the existing patio space will still be active and we will be back in the same place as now. Is that correct?

if yes, this will just lease us with an upset freeholder who has lost the freehold but still owns the lease

If the above is correct, the only benefit to buying the freehold would be getting the powers to grant ourselves the consent to build.


This sounds unfair as the freeholder granted his other company the lease when he knew of our plans to use the patio, probably fearing we may force him to sell the freehold back to us

the term i hear is called "ransom lease/freehold"

jayroc2k

just to be clear, this patio is the flat roof over the extension of the basement flat

molerat

Is the extension even suitable to be built on, what does the downstairs neighbour think about this plan ?

jayroc2k

yes, using a lightweight structure and steel reinforcement. Downstairs neighbour may not be v happy I am guessing!