FTB questions (post survey / mortgage offer / lease)

plasticniki

Hello MSE-ers!

My boyfriend and I are in the process of buying our first flat. We're at quite a late stage (I think) and I'd like some help, opinions and advice from folk here if that's okay. We have received the survey back, had our mortgage approved and have seen the lease and other associated documentation. The ball is in our court. As some background, it's a leasehold ground floor maisonette.

1) The survey threw up a few problems, none *that* major. The heating system, electrics and water system all came back as red. We have seen a recent electrical survey on the property (2012) which suggests it was re-wired and tested. It was also obvious on viewings that these things would probably need replacing. There is a gas supply in the property, but it has been capped off. Other survey issues included external stuff such as pipes / guttering needing repair, external paintwork needing re-doing, and a collapsing garden wall. These were amber, so not "urgent", but in our opinion they were hidden defects of the property, especially as we didn't know the terms of the lease would mean their repair falls under our responsibility (more of that in my second point).

2) The lease was weird in a few places but the main thing concerning us is the leaseholder of the upstairs flat has full responsibility for maintaining the exterior of the building, including any building or maintenance work (there are 2 flats in this freehold). We then pay 50% towards any costs of repair or maintenance. The freeholder's responsibility only extends to the insurance of the building, which also has issues: the 2 flats next door (owned by the same freeholder) are also included in the insurance policy, but we must pay 50% towards buildings insurance off all four flats. Our solicitor is currently querying this point.

3) The EA has told us that the vendor is not willing to do any works on the flat, but has said that the upstairs leaseholder is happy to organise the works to be done and the cost is to be split between the two flats. It is therefore my assumption that the vendor does not want to pay for this (and therefore probably wouldn't be willing to negotiate a price reduction or similar).

My questions:

Is is reasonable to ask that work such as that mentioned in my first point be fixed before we purchase? If so, how would we go about renegotiating?

Is the situation I mention in my second point regarding buildings maintenance and repair a usual one? Should we be concerned that the freeholder basically has no obligations towards maintaining the building?

Lastly, I will mention that we asked our solicitor if we could negotiate a couple of clauses in the lease, mainly the one about no pets being allowed and another about carpet having to be laid. Our solicitor has said that these are entirely normal clauses in a lease (which I don't dispute), and they can't be removed. Surely this isn't the case?

Any help or opinions / advise would be appreciated.

Thanks!

EDIT:
should have made clear, we're buying this from the freeholder of the flat. It's a brand new lease.

marksoton

Walk, save up and buy a freehold property instead.

glasgowdan

You're buying the property as it stands. It's not reasonable to expect a seller to pay for upgrades to suit you.

But as above, it's all sounding like a pain in the butt. Buy a place that's your own instead.

JigglyPug

It's not unreasonable to ask for the repairs to be carried out but it's also not unreasonable for the vendor to refuse to pay for the works! Generally it is assumed when you make an offer that the cost of visible repairs such as paintwork, guttering etc. will have been factored into your offer and you would only negotiate on hidden issues brought up during the survey e.g. electrics. Basically, you can ask but it's quite likely that your vendor will say no! With something like this, I would imagine you don't stand a particularly good chance of getting the vendor to pay for repairs.

With regards to your 2nd question, from your explanation it sounds like the freeholder does have a responsibility to maintain the property, but you are jointly liable to pay for the repairs? If so, that is a very normal set up for a leasehold building.

Finally, you would generally not negotiate the clauses in the lease themselves but could ask for written permission to bypass certain clauses if the freeholder agrees. For example, I live in a leasehold flat that does not allow pets but I was able to obtain written permission from the freeholder to keep my two dogs. You could always ask your solicitor to enquire with the freeholder whether they would agree to your requests, but if these are big deals for you (e.g. you won't buy the flat if you can't have a pet) then I would make sure you get this in writing prior to exchange of contracts!

plasticniki

JigglyPug wrote: »

With regards to your 2nd question, from your explanation it sounds like the freeholder does have a responsibility to maintain the property, but you are jointly liable to pay for the repairs? If so, that is a very normal set up for a leasehold building.

Thanks for your reply! Very helpful!

The upstairs leaseholder is responsible for any building and maintenance work on both of the flats in the freehold, not the freeholder. The freeholder's only responsibility is for insuring the building, but then we have to pay 50% of the insurance cost anyway!

Thrugelmir

plasticniki wrote: »

Lastly, I will mention that we asked our solicitor if we could negotiate a couple of clauses in the lease, mainly the one about no pets being allowed and another about carpet having to be laid. Our solicitor has said that these are entirely normal clauses in a lease (which I don't dispute), and they can't be removed. Surely this isn't the case?

I doubt you'd be happy if the flat above you wasn't carpeted. Nor be woken by a noisy pet.

plasticniki

Thrugelmir wrote: »

I doubt you'd be happy if the flat above you wasn't carpeted. Nor be woken by a noisy pet.

It's a ground floor flat in a small block of four with solid internal walls so I'd assume that any "noise" w/r/t flooring which isn't carpet wouldn't have an impact on anyone apart from ourselves? Obviously I may be wrong here. We currently live in a flat below some folk who have wooden flooring and it's fine.

As for the pet thing: I am sure there are hundreds of thousands of folk living in leasehold flats with pets without issue

Cakeguts

You are buying a lease of a property you aren't buying the property. The actual property is owned by the freeholder. The lease that you are buying says that you must lay carpets and you must not keep pets. If you want to have hard wood floors and keep pets then you need to buy a lease that allows this. You cannot alter a lease just because something in it doesn't suit you. This is not like signing up to an assured shorthold tenancy. You don't get to choose which bits of the lease you don't want. The lease is what it is and that is what you are buying and what the seller is selling. Your solicitor is correct.

Regarding items like outside painting and guttering the seller can't do work on this because they don't own it. The only person who can arrange for work to be done is the person who owns the building, the freeholder. The lease says that this work is then paid for by the people who own the leases this is completely normal. It is was a block of flats you would be likely to have to pay a service charge monthly to cover the cost of repairs to the building.

It sounds as if you don't understand what owning a lease actually means. You need to research about buying a leasehold property to see if that is really what you want to do.

plasticniki

Thrugelmir wrote: »

I doubt you'd be happy if the flat above you wasn't carpeted. Nor be woken by a noisy pet.

Cakeguts wrote: »

Regarding items like outside painting and guttering the seller can't do work on this because they don't own it. The only person who can arrange for work to be done is the person who owns the building, the freeholder. The lease says that this work is then paid for by the people who own the leases this is completely normal. It is was a block of flats you would be likely to have to pay a service charge monthly to cover the cost of repairs to the building.

I should have mentioned, the person we're buying that flat from is the freeholder AND leaseholder of the groundfloor flat.

Does that make more sense now? The lease is brand new.

marksoton

plasticniki wrote: »

Thanks for your reply! Very helpful!

The upstairs leaseholder is responsible for any building and maintenance work on both of the flats in the freehold, not the freeholder. The freeholder's only responsibility is for insuring the building, but then we have to pay 50% of the insurance cost anyway!

I very much doubt that's the case.

Cakeguts

plasticniki wrote: »

It's a ground floor flat in a small block of four with solid internal walls so I'd assume that any "noise" w/r/t flooring which isn't carpet wouldn't have an impact on anyone apart from ourselves? Obviously I may be wrong here. We currently live in a flat below some folk who have wooden flooring and it's fine.

As for the pet thing: I am sure there are hundreds of thousands of folk living in leasehold flats with pets without issue

You can't assume that the soundproofing in the flat that you are buying is the same as the one you live in now. In any case it doesn't matter the lease that you are thinking of buying says you can't have a pet or not have carpets. All you need to decide is if you want to continue with this purchase.