Advertised as Freehold, turns out to be Leasehold - any similar experiences?

MJ12

Always buy a copy of the title from Land Registry before doing anything serious with a purchase. It costs £3 for the title register, which tells you how many years are left on the lease, if there is one.

kinger101

Some reading here:

http://hoa.org.uk/2013/10/what-estate-agents-have-to-tell-you-changes-to-the-law/

http://www2.eastriding.gov.uk/business/trading-standards/fair-trading/information-for-estate-agents-property-descriptions/

https://www.tpos.co.uk/images/documents/rules-codes-obligations/residential-estate-agents/tpoe27-2-code-of-practice-for-residential-estate-agents.pdf

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20140402142426/http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/estate-agents/OFT1364.pdf

Section 2.7 on the last one is probably the most interesting, but it's not entirely clear to me what steps the EA is meant to take to confirm the property is FH before marketing. And this is just the now defunct OFT's guidance, and not case law on the Consumer Protection regulations.

You could complain to the agent formally then refer to the Property Ombudsman. Or you could ask the vendor for your fees back then write a letter before action. I do not know whether this will work, but it costs nothing. What did they write on the property information form?

I know EA have paid buyer's aborted fees (before it went to ombudsman) when they've marketed loft rooms with no regs as bedrooms, but this may be different.

In summary, there are some obligations to provide factually correct information, and not omit things, when it comes to marketing properties.

kinger101

ANGLICANPAT wrote: »

You have to wonder why its not a case of the vendor being accused of fraud, as obviously a FH property is a much more attractive proposition for the price offered so will attract more attention . Its deliberate deceit . I dont believe you can own a leasehold property and fail to notice that you're paying ground rent and service charges and if you do know, I dont believe when you engage an EA and he writes up the advertsing blurb, that you can say you didnt notice he'd put 'FH' either.

A vendor would also know from when they bought the property last time. I guess one exception could be inherited properties. Someone recently posted a similar question on here regarding a garage which turned out not be be included with the property.

Only later did they post that it was an inherited property.

moneyistooshorttomention

densol wrote: »

I wouldn't buy a leasehold house ! There are lots of threads about private companies buying the freehold, then making owners buy their insurance with their " required " insurance company at a significant premium

OP - I would make a formal complaint to the Estate agent - especially after you confirmed and got it in writing that it was freehold. Surely the agent should have confirmed his information instead of misrepresenting the property in that way.

The thing that's nagging at the edge of my memory re having read those threads myself is that one of the things some people find happens is that they have no problem with their house being leasehold and its duly peppercorn ground rent levels - until they decide to make a major alteration to the house and then found that the freeholder could/did decide to whack their charges up a lot as the "price" of being allowed to alter their own house.

RonShelf

This happened to me. The house I now live in was marketed as freehold, but turned out to be on a 999 year lease with a peppercorn ground rent. Earlier this year, the original freeholder sold the remaining freeholds in my road, most having been sold to the occupiers over the course of time. Last week, I had a letter from the new freeholder offering me my freehold at a "discounted price" of £1800, including their costs. Now, according to all the calculators I've tried, my freehold is worth no more than £100. I've wanted to buy the freehold all along, just to tidy things up, and I can afford to do it, but I think that "discounted price" seems like a bit of a try-on. That said, if I went about it the other way, would I end up paying more than that in surveyor's fees and legal costs? I've consulted numerous solicitors and they all either seem to say something different or not reply at all.