Leasehold hidden as a service charge

RickJO1

I have been in my "new build" house for nearly four years, bought as a freehold property. When the house was purchased I had to sign up to an annual charge, which I was told was to cover maintenance of communal grass areas etc., and which I receive a bill for annually. This affects an entire estate of over 100 houses.

It has transpired, that the charge for the maintaining the communal areas, primarily grass cutting and general maintainance, was in fact an agreement to lease the property; this "lease" has been passed onto a lease company in London. All this has come to light when a neighbour sold their property they had to pay the lease company in London.

Neither the building company nor solicitors acting as conveyer made this clear, at any point, leading up to completion.

Now feeling we were mis-sold the property as "free hold".

Help!

The_Magnificent_Spoon

Sounds like the type of thing your solicitor should have picked up. Surely they would have identified that it was leasehold if you were purchasing it as freehold...?

Have you dug the pack from them out to look through it? Have you spoken to them about it?

HampshireH

Sounds a bit odd. Read read your deeds or get in touch with your solicitor.

moneyistooshorttomention

Another vote for checking what the paperwork says - be it traditional Deeds or modern-day Title and Register entry.

Followed by the fact that - even if there is something wrong with their place (ie it's turned out to be leasehold) - that doesn't mean to say the same thing applies to your place (there may be some peculiar quirk to their property for some strange reason).

Davesnave

Did you use the builders' recommended solicitors/conveyancers?