buying a freehold

dizzzyqueen

:-/
Ok

I have just seen one of my neighbours and it seems that everyone has had the same letter??

any more advice?

Woby_Tide

thats because you're all leaseholders so you have to buy the freehold 'together' (withiin reason) hence they will notify you all at the same time

trafalgar_2

:-/
Ok

I have just seen one of my neighbours and it seems that everyone has had the same letter??

any more advice?

If you live in a house , you can just decide for yourself.......................if it's a flat you need to get together with the others ,form a company to buy the freehold :-/

I believe yours is a house though so it's your decision alone

garysletters

If your in a house, at that price i'd bite their hand off, but check with your solicitor exactly what your buying. does this mean you'll be responsible for any repairs rather than them fixing stuff and billing you??? (no more service charges, management charges etc) are there any communal areas?? What happens to repairs to them???

surely the increase in value and saleability would outweigh the costs massively alone?

Bossyboots

It sounds like a bargain to me, even with the additional fees. Of course you must get your own solicitor to check what you are buying.

As far as the costs go, my friend lives in a leasehold property. Her freeholder organises for major works to be done but she has to pay towards the costs. Her landlord decides who does the work, the price for which is hugely over inflated. She gets no say in when the work is done. Her freeholder may be a particularly poor case, but having had the work estimated for independently, she has been totally ripped off. If she could get her freehold for this price, she would save a lot of money by being able to get her own workmen/materials. It looks to me as though the freeholder may be having the estimates inflated so that he is in fact recovering all the costs from the leasholders, even where he should be paying a contribution.

hotpot1000

My ground rent is £1.01 a year, they just offered it to me for £600, every year the price goes up £50 or more

Cameraman

We spent nearly £5000 buying the freehold and its worth it. The managing agents were putting up the 'maintenance' by £150 a year to £900 per year per flat and doing nothing.

Sounds like a bargain.

angelavdavis

I would definitely buy it - if only to stop it being sold elsewhere and you suddenly being charged extortionate ground rent/maintenance fees for the building!

EdInvestor

This Govt funded advisory service is very good and can give you free advice:

https://www.lease-advice.org.uk

Kulakman

I have recently purchased the freehold of my house. The ground rent is £6 per annum, and the cost, including solicitors' fees was £551. The reason I did it was because everytime I wanted to make an improvement to the house the leaseholder charged a rate of £150 for one improvement. We have been in the house nearly 25 years and when we were selling recently we had to produce approval from the leaseholder for all the alterations we had made during that time. There was also a charge for remortgaging, and a charge because we don't have the insurance company that they recommend. It will also be far easier when we do come to sell as we don't have to have evidence in writing that the leaseholders have approved everything.. I know not everyone can or wants to buy the freehold, but it's only when it becomes a problem that you wish you did!