Shared ownership property - multiple leases?

espritlibre87

Hi everyone

I'm in the process of purchasing a shared ownership new build apartment in a purpose-built block. I instructed a solicitor shortly before Christmas and have paid upfront for the searches to be completed, as well as paying a holding deposit to the developers.

I have received an update from my solicitor today, stating that there are "four leases/underleases to review and four variations to the headlease" and that this will cost extra due to the additional time required to review all the paperwork. I'm happy to pay the extra (well not 'happy' but I accept it!) but I wanted to check whether it's normal for there to be more than one lease? I have to admit I know very little about leasehold properties so have no idea whether this is something that happens regularly. Do I have anything to be concerned about in this regard?

Many thanks for your advice

Elfbert

I've never heard of 4 leases.

But it's reasonably common in SO, depending on the type of development, to have a headlease and an underlease (your lease).

For instance, in the building I currently live in, the whole building if owned by the freeholder. Then flats on some of the floors were sold to individual leaseholders, but the top 5 floors are Shared Ownership - so our HA has a headlease, and each SO flat has it's own underlease.

And my solicitor's never charged any extra for that... but it sounds a bit simpler than 4 leases!