Extending lease after survey

Gill2002

Hope someone can help/advise me. I'm worried that my son might have been taken for a ride by unscrupulous estate agents! He put in an offer on a studio flat, the lease is for 74 years but he was told by ea that the owners had extended it to 99 years. The survey has been done, all good, but now he's been told the sellers were waiting until AFTER the survey to extend the lease. Sounds odd to me, also will take a while to sort it all out. What do you think?

ognum

I think he need to sort out the facts. The property with a short lease is worth less than one with a longer lease, it can also take some time to extend a lease.
Has he got a solicitor? His solicitor needs to ask the vendors solicitor.

HouseBuyer77

I suspect they were waiting til they could be fairly sure he'd go through with the purchase before proceeding. Once he's had a survey he's already spent money on the purchase so is less likely to pull out on a whim.

It will slow things down which will be frustrating but I wouldn't say it's a big problem.

Gill2002

Thanks for that, feel a bit better about it now:)

Gill2002

Yes he has a solicitor, l think he's waiting for some sort of confirmation from the ea about the extension. Just seems strange to me that they were the ones to tell him about the lease extension, not the sellers while he was viewing the property.

Gill2002

ognum wrote: »

I think he need to sort out the facts. The property with a short lease is worth less than one with a longer lease, it can also take some time to extend a lease.
Has he got a solicitor? His solicitor needs to ask the vendors solicitor.

Don't think he's too worried about the timescale, just that it happens!

ognum

Gill2002 wrote: »

Yes he has a solicitor, l think he's waiting for some sort of confirmation from the ea about the extension. Just seems strange to me that they were the ones to tell him about the lease extension, not the sellers while he was viewing the property.

Please don't accept what the EA says ask the question from the solicitor.

Gill2002

ognum wrote: »

Please don't accept what the EA says ask the question from the solicitor.

Yes l will tell him to get in touch with solicitor to get to the bottom of this. He's a FTB so not very clued up about buying property.

jbainbridge

Gill2002 wrote: »

Yes l will tell him to get in touch with solicitor to get to the bottom of this. He's a FTB so not very clued up about buying property.

Best thing he can do is stop talking to the EA. Everything should now be through his solicitor - make sure they are aware of the promise of extending the lease.

Gill2002

Thank you for your helpful comments.

davo75

Make sure he doesn't get caught out, the costs of extending a leasehold under 82 years can be very very expensive (this shows just how much - http://www.boltburdonkemp.co.uk/professional-negligence/lease-negligence-claims/leasehold-extension-calculator/).