Council as freeholder

Marichka

Good afternoon
I am a FTB currently considering whether to put an offer on a leasehold flat. It is a ground floor flat (with a garden) in a terraced house with two other flats above me. It is not a council block/estate so I was quite surprised to learn that the freeholder for the property (and in fact for most properties on that street) is the council.
Is this a major issue or something that I could live with? I am especially concerned about getting any permissions to renovate/ alter the flat (i.e. about the potential to increase its value) - for example, right now there is only a small door leading to the garden, and the property would really benefit from converting it into french doors. Any words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated.

princeofpounds

It's not an issue in itself, but there are a few things you need to be aware of.


a) you might be next to - or even below - a property that is still used for social housing, as many ex-council flats were acquired via right-to-buy. You may or may not care about that.


b) councils in general have a bad reputation for springing building upgrade programs on leaseholders. This is partly because of the 'better homes' initiative of the past few years, but the real issue is that they often seem to be less than competitive about the costs involved;


c) councils do generally treat requests for permissions etc. fairly, but they will use opportunities to maximise revenue where they can. Don't be surprised if you get answers like "yes, but pay us X plus our legal costs".

Marichka

princeofpounds -thank you, very much appreciated.
your number 1) is right on point -the flat above mine is occupied by council tenants - they looked like nice people thought (I went up to talk to them) - although I understand that the tenants do change...