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Leasehold

We are selling our house with an approx 81 lease years left.

I have been in touch with the leasehold company and they will extend to 100 years for £480 but the yearly rent will go up from £35 to £250 a year.

As a buyer would you prefer the shorter lease with the £35 fee per year or the longer lease and the £250?

Thank You

Comments

  • sirmosh
    sirmosh Posts: 701 Forumite
    At 80 years it starts to become more difficult (sometimes not possible) to get a mortgage on a leasehold property. That's quite cheap to extend the lease from my experience.

    A short lease will put some people off and you may find if you don't extend they'll ask you to enquire about the costs or even start the extension since they won't automatically be able to extend unless the freeholder agrees for a couple of years, so they'll know about the ground rent increase anyway.
  • AnnieO1234
    AnnieO1234 Posts: 1,722 Forumite
    When the rent goes up does it include provision for further increases?

    If it were me, I would declare this to the buyer and let them decide what they want. On balance though, they'll probably need the lease extension over and above the ground rent cost which will probably be put up even further if they chose to wait till they had been in the property for two years.

    Xx
  • princeofpounds
    princeofpounds Posts: 10,396 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    The first price offered by the freeholder is not always fair, remember that!

    They can be negotiated and if there is still a dispute, set by an independent Leasehold Valuation Tribunal.
  • TrickyDicky101
    TrickyDicky101 Posts: 3,534 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts
    Speaking for myself, if I was buying your property (irrespective of mortgage considerations) and I found you'd agreed an increase from £35 to £250 per year just before you sold I would be monumentally peeved.

    Agree that the buyer should get to decide whether to go with this based on their requirements rather than you jumping the gun as you are about to vacate.
  • Threebabes
    Threebabes Posts: 1,272 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Thank you everyone. Food for thought. :-)
  • TCPPC
    TCPPC Posts: 142 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 10 Posts Combo Breaker
    can you buy the lease off them?
  • AndyGuil
    AndyGuil Posts: 1,668 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    edited 10 July 2014 at 7:46PM
    If you have owned for 2 years you can have your lease extended by 90 years to 171 years with £0 ground rent. That is your legal right if you wish to take it. It has to be done at a reasonable cost too. See this link for info and a calculator http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mortgages/extend-your-lease
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