Buying a leasehold HOUSE - management information pack

nicegirl

Hi all

I'm in the process of buying a leasehold house. It's come to light that the seller's solicitor has not ordered the management information pack from the freeholder/management company and when asked why by our solicitor because 'it costs a lot of money and you won't need half the information anyway'. It's a very standard form (LPE1) and he's right that as it's a flat rather than a house, lots of the sections don't apply (e.g. there is not service charge etc..). However, our solicitor (and The Law Society) recommend that the information that IS relevant is still collected in this form. The form is not mandatory but is designed to standardise how the information is collected.

At our solicitor's insistence, they have now requested that the management company fill out this form. However, in an email to the estate agent, the seller's solicitor said, "The majority of the information requested simply does not apply to this type of property. Normally we would provide a ground rent receipt and notices fees on these property types and find that this is sufficient to proceed."

Does anyone have any experience of buying a leasehold house, and do you know if you had this form? Should ground rent rent receipts and notices fee be enough? The seller is using Countrywide Property Lawyers, so I'm inclined to think that it's a steaming pile of.. well you know.

Thanks.

G_M

Depends on the terms of the lease and how much of the form is relevant.

Look at the lease. Look at the form. Which Qs would appy and be useful to have answered?

AlexMac

I'm a little confused whether you are buying a leasehold FLAT (in a house), or a leasehold HOUSE, as you mention both:-

nicegirl wrote: »

Hi all,
I'm in the process of buying a leasehold house....
as it's a flat rather than a house, lots of the sections don't apply ...
Thanks.

You ask

nicegirl wrote: »

Does anyone have any experience of buying a leasehold house, and do you know if you had this form? Should ground rent rent receipts and notices fee be enough? The seller is using Countrywide Property Lawyers, so I'm inclined to think that it's a steaming pile of.. well you know.

I'm not as expert as GM, as I'm just a home owner, but we have bought and sold several leasehold flats, most recently last year, and our kids bought a freehold House a couple of years back so we have some experience. And in the kids' case, the leasehold tenure was so problematic on a house that they paid to sort the freehold

I assume there actually a freeholder or Management Company or both, because you say

nicegirl wrote: »

... they have now requested that the management company fill out this form. However... the seller's solicitor said, "The majority of the information requested simply does not apply to this type of property.
Thanks.

But wheter or not there is a Company or an agent, you need to have written answers to obvious LPE1 -type questions such as 1.1- 1,7, 3 and 4 about who the freeholder actually is, if there is a management company or agent, if so, who collects ground rent and service charges and wheter any are due; also stuff like 1.8- 1.10 about who is responsible for Insurance and maintenance, and later points about costs, funding and plans of any Maintenance, the Asbestos and Fire Risk reports required for any communal areas.... Or if you are responsible for everything, that too needs spelling out.

I can't see why it's such a problem. If you don't pay, or if your seller is too tight to fork out the few quid to their Freeholder or its Management Company they (the vendor) could fill it in 'emselves; the LPE1 ain't rocket science.

I used to draw up these replies to solicitors on behalf of the Freeholder when I was the (amateur and unpaid!) treasurer of the Freehold Company in our 'self-managed' shared freehold block of six flats, one of which we owned up to four years ago. And we didn't even charge our neighbours for these as it was only half an hours work!

nicegirl

Arghhh! Sorry, it is indeed a house!

Yeah I don't understand the problem with filling it in either. They must have the information. They seem genuinely baffled that we even want this information. I'd started to wonder if it was just us being difficult!

AlexMac

De nada! Leasehold houses are unusual; in our kids' case, theirs was on the Isle of Wight, and while technically a leasehold (as many Island homes are) there wasn't actually a lease on their house; just a lease on a field considerably bigger than their plot, on which permission had been granted in the late 19th Century for a terrace of Victorian houses. Their (London-based) solicitor was not impressed and urged them not to buy til it was sorted; dire threats about months of legal process ensued.

Their vendor, by now desperate, suggested they get a local lawyer 'versed in Island Ways' (in other words, who'd turn a blind eye to the dodgy title, as presumably, local previous conveyancers had done for 100 years!)

In practice, and cos the DIL's a real hustler/rottweiler type, they worked round the lawyers a bit, buttered up the ancient freehold institution who owned half the town, got on first name terms with someone in Land Registry (who was incredibly helpful Land Reg Rep!) and sorted it by buying the freehold for peanuts in a month or two... which meant they had to move into short term rented as they'd sold well in London and didn't want to risk that...

Anyway (apologies- too much info!) I'm sure in your case it will be much simpler and that your lawyer will tell you how to sort it. One caution; lawyers do like a quiet life, so tell 'em firmly, you want answers, and, if there's a problem, you want it fixed (like our kids were with their brief who initiallly told 'em to walk away). Every problem has a solution...

Best wishes

Lucifa42

Just replying as I'm on the opposite side of the OP, though it is a different property

I'm currently selling a flat that is leasehold and our solicitor has asked to confirm some details about the landlord/freeholder to produce the management pack for the buyer.

The thing is:

We have never had any contact with the freeholder during our 7 years here. The lease does mention a service charge but it has never been collected or asked for, and the seller we bought from confirmed the same.


I even had to google who the freeholder was, the company name on the lease is so old the company doesn't exist any more and now has merged with someone else.
I'm worried that if my solicitors contacts them they might come back with 7 years backdated service charges of unknown amounts, or alternately it will simply delay our sale as the company will have no idea what this property is they apparently built 40 years ago.

Btw, the flat is a ground floor maisonette. There are no communal areas.

SmlSave

Some management companies don't have information packs, they are just too small.

Some freeholders, like yours Lucifa42, aren't interested and a Stat Dec can sometimes be done to cover if the freeholder isn't contactable

However, in the OP's case, it has been stated that the sellers basically don't want to pay for it! So I'd insist upon the same.

Peverel, OM and E&M management companies in our area have several leasehold houses. Basically it's a good way for the freeholder to get constant funds from the whole estate!