Buying freehold of house - Freeholder not responding to letters

Novice_investor101

My house is a leasehold with somewhere between 680-700 years left on the lease. The ground rent is £1.50 a year that is actually paid by the end house of our block of 4 (has been this way forever, apparently). After 3 years owning the house my solicitor served notice last October on the freeholder to sell it to me. They acknowledged the claim and made an offer of just under £1000 inc their legal fees etc. So in total it would cost me about £1500 including my legal fees as well. My solicitor suggested that we refuse that as the market value is actually about £300 (£45 for the freehold and £250 for their legal fees). I asked him to send them a letter saying I would offer £500 all in for the freehold as a full and final offer.
That all happened last November/December. Since then we have heard nothing from them. We sent another letter after Xmas (in Feb) repeating the offer and still have not had a reply. I have emailed my solicitor this week for an update but will probably not hear from him until later next week.
So, what is the likely next step going to be? Can they keep on ignoring us if they have acknowledged the legal notice? And how long do we wait before we take any action (if so, what actions?)
I do not really want to take this to a tribunal as it's just money chucked at legal fees for nothing. Their offer of £1000 is just under what it would cost me to pay for a solicitor at Tribunal, so they are obviously trying it on.
I'm awaiting news from my solicitor but I am happy to continue waiting if needs be (I've no plans to sell the house any time soon) - but how long for?
And also, if it does go to Tribunal (which, I believe would then mean they have to pay their own legal fees of over £1000?) could I after reclaim the extra legal fees I was forced to pay (ie through small claims court etc) because they did not respond to numerous reasonable requests & offers?
Any info would be much appreciated!
As a just in case, I have actually saved up £1500 to cover the cost in case I do have to pay out full whack, but I'm half tempted to just drag them to a Tribunal so they can pay out £1000+ on solicitors to be awarded £45-£55 for the freehold......

AdrianC

This describes how the value should be calculated.
http://www.lease-advice.org/advice-guide/leasehold-houses-valuation-for-enfranchisement/

Given that you have such a long lease, at very low ground rent, I'm wondering how much time, effort and money buying the freehold is worth.

anselld

The F has complied with the requirements by acknowledging your notice and offering a price.
The next step is up to you, i.e. Accept the offer or apply to the First Tier Tribunal for a determination.

The £1000 does not seem unreasonable under the circumstances. I am not sure why your solicitor estimates the other side's fee to be £250 when his own fee is £500

Novice_investor101

My solicitor has quoted their legal fees would be around £250 and his is £250 for setting the case up and then £250 for the work after a purchase price is agreed and for completion. The freeholders offer was £975 including all their fees. so I figured £1500 total. Would I be wise to just accept this and be done with it? Having looked at my old emails my solicitor sent me their acknowledgment and price in August 2016, si it is getting on for nearly a year now....

dgtazzman

Not exactly a huge sum in the grand scheme of things, so if it were me, I'd accept the offer, or do nothing. Long lease, token annual payment, why bother? Or did you plan on living to be a thousand years old?

Novice_investor101

Noted, I'll call the solicitor on Tuesday & accept it. It'll be worth it be rid of the freeholder & own my house outright.

melstar11

To echo an earlier poster, I'm not sure it's worth the effort and the money when you have such a long lease, but if you want to then for a few hundred pounds more just do it.

Novice_investor101

The specific reason for wanting to buy it is because of the garden. It's a terraced​ house with a long, narrow garden & at the top there is a bit of land to the left (directly behind my neighbours garden, which is fenced off). This is where the outside toilets used to be, but they have long since been knocked down & it is just a patch of land about 6x8 foot. The lease says I cannot fence this off as I have to maintain access for my neighbours to get to "their toilet", which is no longer there. It does show on my deeds as my land. I want to fence this off & put a shed on it.
Although I've never even heard from the freeholder since buying the house upto serving the notice, I'd rather not chance it by paving, fencing & building a shed to then find they can tell me to knock it down or pay a big fee.
NB: the house next door is a Buy to Let so the landlord & tenants don't care either way. I think I'll be better off just paying out the cost & being rid of them.
Hopefully it'll also help the house increase a little in value in case I ever do sell up, too.