Advertised as "Freehold"

Lovem

Inunubububbubu

eddddy

I guess the key considerations are the length of lease and the ground rent.

If it's 999 years with a peppercorn rent, it's virtually freehold, so it shouldn't impact the value too much.

At the other extreme, if it's, say, 50 years it will have a significant impact on the value, and probably wouldn't be mortgagable.

The length of lease and ground rent will be stated in the lease (which your solicitor will get).


Realistically, you should have been made aware that it was leasehold from the outset. But I guess the vendor may have 'forgotten' and/or the agent just assumed it was freehold and didn't ever ask the vendor.

stator

Check on the land registry website. Search for the title for the property. If there is a leasehold it will show up.
It may be that the lease is very long or it may be that there is a lease but the freehold is owned by the leaseholder anyway.

stator

Ok so when you do a property search on land registry it should show straight away

Find a property - purchase documents

Address:
blah blah

Tenure:
Freehold

The title document itself should say freehold at the top, or something different.
If it's a leashold there would be two title documents rather than one.

HouseBuyer77

I have seen EAs market something as 'Freehold' but upon digging into the details it transpires it's a leasehold and comes with a share of the freehold or a share of the holding company that owns the freehold.

This isn't the same as plain freehold as there's two parts, the share of the freehold and the leasehold which can be owned seperately. Say your conveyancy is botched, perhaps you own up owning the lease but not the share of freehold, think there was a thread on this forum recently describing a situation where someone was having trouble signing over their share of the freehold as the other freeholders were objecting. It's the kind of thing that's unlikey to happen and can be sorted out but might add stress to the buying process.

Also if it's a share of freehold you may still find yourself paying out for lease extensions, permissions for alterations etc. The other people who share the freehold may be happy for you to just do whatever provided you pay for the paperwork, or they might want to make some money (person A who was there when the freehold was bought out paid £30'000 for a lease extension as part of the freehold purchase, why should you get one for free?).

AdrianC

Lovem wrote: »

We are in the middle of purchsing a House. Today we are getting the valuation however our solicitor has told us the land is likely "Leasehold".

and also if it does turn out to be "Leasehold" when should we have been made aware of charges etc

Your solicitor has done the job you're paying him for. It's entirely possible the EA was misinformed by the vendor - so there's no deliberate misrepresentation. It's the buyer's solicitor's job to make sure everything is accurate and as expected. Which is exactly what he's done.

AdrianC

Lovem wrote: »

Not exactly..... I had a feeling that the house was leasehold from Day 1. I asked the EA twice to confirm it was "Freehold".

And the best the EA could honestly say is "We've been told so by the vendor".

G_M

Estate agents often don't understand the nuances.

They understand

* freehold houses
* leasehold flats

Where a property comes with both beimg sold together, they just say, "oh - it's freehold" even though legally there is a lease which is being sold AND a freehold being sold either in full or in part (shared).

It is during the conveyancing that these matters are checked (that's why EAs don't do conveyancing!) ad your conveyancer, assuming you use one, should explain.