My Freeholder is holding up the sale of my leasehold flat

koppite412

I am in the process of selling my leasehold flat and as a par for the course, the potential buyer has some general questions to be answered, such as details of ground rent, future maintenance etc.

These have been relayed now twice in the last two weeks, via my conveyancer to the freeholder. I have a 'frosty' relationship at best with my freeholder, so the cynical side of me thinks he may simply be holding things up to make my life horrid.

I have sent a reminder letter through his door myself and by now the conveyancers have contacted him twice as well.

Is there anything legal/heavyweight I can do to make him answer these questions as at the moment I feel he is actively holding up the sale of my property for his own sadistic fun?

Thank you all in advance

goldbyron

Freeholders seem to have a habit of taking their time to answer enquiries anyway but he may be delaying a little longer. Freeholders often charge for answer to enquiries and would have thought the dangle of this may speed him up. I would speak to your sol about whether there is a legal period in which the freeholder must respond. If so this needs to be relied to him through the sol. Alternatively I would go direct - knock on his door until you get to see him. I would be polite but firm and ask him to respond to the enquiries as you wish to move. If you have the frosty relt. he may want to answer the enquries as he doesn't want you to keep pestering him. You may also get a sense of what the delay is.

Badger_Lady

Oh, this is such a pain, isn't it? I sold my leasehold flat this year and what should have been a quick and easy 6 weeks turned into over 4 months. There were other delays, but the main one was the freeholder.

In my case, I didn't have any direct contact details for the freeholder, so everything was done through solicitors - when I say "everything", I mean that mine kept contacting his, but we were met with complete silence. We didn't hear anything from him in 2 months, despite frequent chasing (with limited effectiveness since all "chasing" was via post through his solicitor), and had no way to "force" a quicker reply.

I've nothing to help you, I'm afraid - just my sympathy and best wishes.

koppite412

I just wonder if it's worth getting a copy of the queries from the solicitor and waiting for him to come home...

Guapa1

You sure you're not my seller? I'm beginning to think this freeholder isn't real! We've been waiting months to talk to him and the only information I have he's put up the maintenance charges by 100% and no one knows why. If your buyer is anything like me they'll be wondering if they want to take on such an !!! of a freeholder. I'm seriously thinking of pulling out.