Advice needed as Vendor refuse to take house off the market

kkoma

davidmcn wrote: »

Exactly, the tenure at the time of completion is what's relevant, not what the position is at the date of your application.

I am not sure then, the advisor from L&C told me it is going to be rejected and he has had other similar cases which were rejected before.

Elfbert wrote: »

Are they seriously going to sell it to you at the same price, when first of all it had a very short lease and now you're getting the freehold (or at least an extended lease)?? Sounds very odd, if so. Are you sure they're not going to put the price up loads now?

The property was put on the market without the seller knowing about the leasehold situation (they inherited the property) and it was on the market from April with 2 reduction without knowing about the lease time. They first aware of that when I raised the question. Since it wasnt sold under the impression that it had a long lease/or a freehold they accept that them getting the freehold wont be able to increase the price. Furthermore, they accept my offer after getting the freehold costs from the council so they know how much they have to pay for it.

It is not too bad getting freehold up north. I was told the costs of getting the freehold include the solicitor fees is 14k. That is for a 3 bed semi detached valued at 175k with a 50 years lease time.

david1951

I would personally be wary of two things. Firstly, will they bother getting the freehold rather than simply sell to someone else at a reduced price. Secondly, if they do get the freehold and you go ahead, agent #1 (who lost out) is likely to contact the seller and tell them that they sold too low, they have buyers waiting, etc.

The likelihood is that they are sorting out the freehold, but until they do I wouldn't have too much interest in the property anyway. Your offer stands and it's up to them to get their act together. I would certainly be looking at other houses in the meantime - what have you got to lose?

When they do get the freehold, I would proceed as fast as possible on your end to reduce the chances of being gazumped by agent #1.

always_sunny

kkoma wrote: »

L&C advised me that if the freehold is not completed, once the lender checked and found out it is leasehold then the application will be rejected so they put a brake on the application till freehold issues is done.

So maybe that's why the property has been reduced and it has been on the market a while!

always_sunny

POPPYOSCAR wrote: »

Properties that have a short lease are hard to sell because of getting a mortgage. To increase the length of the lease is usually quite expensive.To get the freehold even more so.

Depends how short is the short lease. Lenders have guidelines about length.
I.e. 60 years can be fine on a 20 years mortgage.

In England, flats are virtually all LH and there're 2 kinds really:
- Long leases that have been quickly extended and have huge ground rent
- Shorter leases that need to be extended

It is costly to extend when below 80 years, but a long lease with a bad lease can be also very damaging to the property!

saajan_12

marksoton wrote: »

I actually disagree with most. Chances are the vendor is going to have to extend the lease no matter who they sell to.

Who'd get a survey on a property they're not sure they can get a mortgage on?

To my mind you're being played, i'd start looking elsewhere.

I don't think people are disputing that the LL should get onto the extension first. However that aside, it is fairly common to leave a property on the market until the buyer has made some financial commitment, usually by way of a mortgage application / booking a survey as otherwise the buyer could delay, costing the vendor time.

Unfortunately you can't / don't want to make that financial commitment until the extension is in place - fair enough, but the upshot of that is everything has to wait until the extension is in place. Once that's sorted, then mortgage application should be starting and property should be coming off the marketing.

Cakeguts

kkoma wrote: »

Hi, I am a FTB using a broker in the middle of process buying my first house. I have a DIP in place and ready to proceed. Quick summary about the situation:

Thanks.

I don't think you understand about the house buying process. You say that you are in the middle of process but actually you aren't. You have just got to the very start. Having an offer accepted is the very beginning of the house buying process not the middle. At the moment you haven't even got a mortgage.

The seller is not going to take a house off the market where their buyer hasn't even got as far as getting a mortgage. You haven't had a survey and you haven't had any searches done there is a long way to go to complete the process.

It is unrealistic to expect a seller to take a house off the market when the buyer hasn't even got a mortgage.

kkoma

Thank you everyone for the advices. They are very helpful.

Another question since I am not too familiar with the process. I was told that they have released the funds to their solicitors to pay for the council for the freehold. Question is what is needed to be done after paying? Do they solicitors has to do any search or how can they update the tenure? And how long it might take for it to be completed?