Just found out the house we are buying is leasehold

robynlouise

Were told at time of putting offer in it was freehold. Our solicitor has confirmed today it's a leasehold! 960 years left so shouldn't affect mortgage and annual payment is only £7 but I don't know whether there is anything else to consider? It's leasehold to the council so I guess they would have to approve any substantial work to property etc. Any thoughts?

robynlouise

Edit - may not be council, my husband just assumed that. Need to check tomorrow

da_rule

The lease will tell you (or your solicitor):

1) Whether the rent can be increased and by how much;
2) What notice you have to give should you want to do work, how much they can charge for issuing consent and what works need consent;
3) Any fees to assign the lease (transfer it to someone else), which as the buyer you may have to pay on this occasion;
4) Any restrictions on what you can use the property for (commercial uses etc - may not be relevant to your circumstances);
5) Who deals with insurance (and who pays for it) - you will insure your contents, sometimes the freeholder insures the actual building (this is less likely when it's a house). The lease may also set a minimum value for which you must insure the property and what risks you have to insure it against. You may also have to provide proof of insurance and the insurance may have to be from an approved insurer.

Also, have you told your mortgage company? With such a long lease it probably won't make much of a difference.

You could approach the freeholder and see if they want to/are allowed to sell the freehold.

da_rule

Also, if you were told it was freehold, you could try and get a bit of money off as you've been mislead - might be worth a try.

yoshiyella

If it is only £7 a year if you can find out who owns it maybe see if you can purchase the freehold?

SensibleSarah

I had this exact situation. House was advertised as freehold and it was only when I was in fairly deep that it emerged as leasehold. The vendors were the grown children of the deceased owner and they had never lived there and knew nothing about the house. 960 odd years left on the lease (to the council) and the lease itself doesn't really tell me much to be honest.
It worried me just because I didn't know anything about leasehold - but having lived here now for over 6 years, it's not had an impact on anything so far. No ground rent to pay (peppercorn - not ever requested) and I've never heard from the council about it, other than regular council tax obviously.

It could potentially mean that it's a bit harder to sell if you ever wanted to do in the future - just because leasehold scares some people off - but in practical purposes it's not much different from a straight sale with it having such a long lease.

G_M

Read th lease.

davidmcn

robynlouise wrote: »

Our solicitor has confirmed today it's a leasehold! 960 years left so shouldn't affect mortgage and annual payment is only £7 but I don't know whether there is anything else to consider? It's leasehold to the council so I guess they would have to approve any substantial work to property etc. Any thoughts?

Rather than us all guessing, you can wait to see what your solicitor tells you is actually in the lease!

McKneff

It will never be totally yours, walk away

da_rule

McKneff wrote: »

It will never be totally, walk away

Never be totally what?

robber2

........yours maybe?