Vendor purchasing freehold before sale - FTB

Lembo

Hi,
New to the forum and also a FTB so please be gentle;).
We have had an offer accepted today on a semi detached house which is currently a leasehold. The vendor is willing to purchase the freehold for us before completing any sale and the offer was made on this basis.
She receives offers from the freeholder on a yearly basis asking if she wishes to purchase and the most recent offer was for around £430.
The reason we want the freehold is to purely feel like we actually own the entire property and don't need to get permission to for certain things (driveway etc) from effectively a landlord after having privately rented for so long.
What i'd like to know/try and find out is how long should it roughly take the vendor to complete the purchase of the freehold and have it registered (i presume??) if there are no complications? The current freeholder is obviously willing to sell.
Thanks in advance

Mossfarr

I purchased the freehold of my propery last year - it took eight months in total.
Date offer received from freeholder - 29th January 2016
Appointed solicitor - 6th February 2016
Completion statement from Solicitor - 15th September 2016
The final two months was the time taken by the Land Registry to update the register, they have a backlog apparently.

Lembo

Wow. Thought it might take a little while but eight months could be a deal breaker for both parties i think. Thanks for the reply.

eddddy

If everyone's agreed and keen to get things moving, it's just a matter of signing the documents.

You could go for a freehold transfer from the freeholder direct to you on completion.


But... there is the risk that once the freeholder finds out there is a sale dependent on the freehold transfer - they may see an opportunity to make big bucks, and the price of the freehold shoots up.

Lembo

Thanks. Think I'll just see how the vendor gets on with the first contact and go from there.

LoopyLoops

We purchasing ours, so it completes with our sale. It will take a couple of months total. Ours is with the council and they will fit to our sale dates.

AlexMac

Our kids' deal took 2-3 months and cost a few £k, but it was a complex deal, with an ancient (almost feudal) freeholder, and with dodgy tenure;

no specific lease on the property; merely a 999 year lease on the field on which their late Victorian street of terraced homes had been built...

...and lawyers on the other side who said in their opening gambit, something like "the only nominated solicitor empowered to convey this freehold is (so and so).... who died in 1953! (or words to that effect)

But thinking more positively, the house is great, and it was fixable, albeit it took a few months. So they had to move into a short term holiday let to avoid losing their own sale and to secure a place in the new area's local school for the start of the autumn term. Then move house in the depths of winter!

I'm sure yours will be easier

Lembo

Thanks AlexMac. Hopefully it will be a little more straight forward for us. I know the owners of the freehold are a company who only purchased it a few years back. They have offered it for sale to the vendor every year since.

Lembo

Been back on to the estate agent today to clarify a few things. The vendor has spoken with the freehold company (Morgoed Estates) and they've told her that it is quite a long winded process if she purchases the freehold on our behalf as she'd have to wait to register it with the Land Registry. They have advised we purchase after we complete the sale. This does leave me worried as what is there to stop them increasing the price they want for the freehold (currently £452) or making me wait it out 2 years before qualifying for purchase? Thanks in advance.

eddddy

Lembo wrote: »

Been back on to the estate agent today to clarify a few things. The vendor has spoken with the freehold company (Morgoed Estates) and they've told her that it is quite a long winded process if she purchases the freehold on our behalf as she'd have to wait to register it with the Land Registry. They have advised we purchase after we complete the sale. This does leave me worried as what is there to stop them increasing the price they want for the freehold (currently £452) or making me wait it out 2 years before qualifying for purchase? Thanks in advance.

As I mentioned in post #4, you could see if you could get the freehold transferred direct from the freeholder to you on completion.

Essentially, your solicitor would treat the leasehold purchase and freehold purchase as linked transactions - you would exchange contracts for both on the same day, and then complete on both on the same day.

That way, you know exactly what you will pay for both the lease and the freehold on the day you exchange, and there is no risk of the freeholder changing their mind (and leaving you with just the leasehold).

Lembo

Thanks eddddy. We are at the bank Friday morning and will most likely decide from there what solicitor we are going to use. I will discuss this option with them as it's exactly what we would want to happen.