Buying share of freehold flat with assurance lease will be extended after completion

Young_Turk

Greetings!
I'd be very grateful if anyone has any thoughts on this (either from personal experience or legal expertise).


I am in the process of buying a share of freehold flat with a lease of 81 years. A month or so ago the vendor agreed to extend the lease and the co-freeholders gave consent. Over the last few weeks the estate agent told me they were waiting for the co-freeholders to provide ID. Yesterday (Friday) they told me they are still waiting for one of the co-freeholders to provide ID (he/she lives in another country) and said as this is dragging on but everyone has agreed to the lease extension they think I should exchange next week and the lease can be extended afterwards. My solicitor of course pointed out there was a risk this won't happen. How would you decide what to do? What would you ask? Would any particular information set your mind at ease or give you cause for concern?

jbainbridge

You have to ask the question .... If it is so easy why hasn't the vendor done in already?

AdrianC

The EA works for the vendors. Remember that.
The only person working for you is your solicitor.

Notnow

How can a freehold flat have a lease?

AdrianC

Notnow wrote: »

How can a freehold flat have a lease?

How can a flat be freehold?

NeilCr

I assumed that the OP means that s/he is buying a leasehold flat and the freehold for the building is owned by all the owners of the flats/building/estate. So will be getting a share of the freehold as well as the flat

But I could be wrong. It's been known!

Notnow

NeilCr wrote: »

I assumed that the OP means that s/he is buying a leasehold flat and the freehold for the building is owned by all the owners of the flats/building/estate. So will be getting a share of the freehold as well as the flat

But I could be wrong. It's been known!

Is that commonhold? Sounds a right mess to me.

Notnow

Sorry, I forgot to leave a message for the poster. I wouldn't touch anything with a lease of 81 years because as you may know, once it goes below 80 years it costs a fortune to extend. It takes around 9 to 12 months to get an extension granted (based on what I have been told by several brokers in my search) so don't expect it anytime soon. I looked at one place where they had extended the lease by 25 years and that cost £13,000 so it's not cheap.

I would say walk away and find somewhere with a longer lease. It's the problem I came up against many times when looking at flats, the first thing I do now is ask how long is left and if it's under 100 years I won't even consider it.

AdrianC

Notnow wrote: »

Is that commonhold? Sounds a right mess to me.

No, the flat is leasehold, as the vast majority of flats are.

The freehold is owned by a limited company.
The flat owners own shares in that company.

marksoton

Young_Turk wrote: »

Greetings!
I'd be very grateful if anyone has any thoughts on this (either from personal experience or legal expertise).


I am in the process of buying a share of freehold flat with a lease of 81 years. A month or so ago the vendor agreed to extend the lease and the co-freeholders gave consent. Over the last few weeks the estate agent told me they were waiting for the co-freeholders to provide ID. Yesterday (Friday) they told me they are still waiting for one of the co-freeholders to provide ID (he/she lives in another country) and said as this is dragging on but everyone has agreed to the lease extension they think I should exchange next week and the lease can be extended afterwards. My solicitor of course pointed out there was a risk this won't happen. How would you decide what to do? What would you ask? Would any particular information set your mind at ease or give you cause for concern?

No chance. You can't purchase on hearsay. Tell the EA you want the lease extended before exchange.

Notnow

So what is commonhold then? I always thought that was when the leasholders owned some of the freehold. Why can't all property just be free and we wouldn't have this mess. I mean free as in pay nothing, not freehold.