Issue with loft conversion

emmabar

Need some advise am selling my flat which had a loft conversion in 2007.

Flat is lease hold with share of freehold was advised by management company at the time that i needed written consent from the freeholders to have the lost conversion: this was obtained.

Buyers solicitor has picked up that the loft space is not covered by the lease (Lease was written when property had a flat roof.
3 years after the lease back in the 80's a pitched roof was put on the property. Buyers solicitor are asking for me to obtain a deed of variation - freeholders have since written a letter stating "the loft for all its intents and purposes are included in the demised premises and shall remain that way everymore. We have no recourse to reclaim the space from any owner and consider it part of the individual property. Upon sale of any of the 6 properties the loft will be transferred to the new owners - is his enough - we are a week away from exchange if this is not enough does anyone have any ideas how much and how long a deed of variation will take.

nicmyles

Your situation is a little different than when I sold my old flat, but basically same deal - loft conversion, not explicitly referenced in lease, query re: demise.

We also got the freeholder to confirm that it was part of the demise and they also pointed the buyer to the plan of the property which included the conversion. They were satisfied.

A lot of the time I've found that buyers' solicitors seem like they're going to make a big deal out of something but then are satisfied with the answer, even if the answer is "no, we will not be providing a deed of variation". Ultimately the buyer will make the decision to proceed or not, not the solicitor.

If they want to push it to the point of walking away, and you need to retain them (whether for speed or due to lack of other interest) then maybe you'll need to consider it. But I'd certainly be starting with "no, I've given you a perfectly adequate answer and I'm not entering into further correspondence on the matter. Next query."

G_M

As above, except that it's not always just the buyer who has to be satisfied - if they are using a mortgage to buy, then the lender has to be satisfied.

The lender will be advised by their solcitor - usually the same solicitor as the buyer is using.

emmabar

G_M wrote: »

As above, except that it's not always just the buyer who has to be satisfied - if they are using a mortgage to buy, then the lender has to be satisfied.

The lender will be advised by their solcitor - usually the same solicitor as the buyer is using.

They are mortgage free cash buyers so.... this is the third time i have sold this flat (two previous buyers pulled out from lack of deposit funds and inability to get a mortgage offer) . - nothing to do with my flat BTW) and neither of the previous buyers raised this as an issue - so kind of been taken aback by this.... lets see how it goes