A lesson in being a sole freeholder and living on site.

eddddy

D_M_E wrote: »

Another problem I see looming is what are you going to do when one of them wants to sell and wants to extend their sub-70 year lease?

Probably start looking at buying a new car or booking an exotic holiday with the money!

In reality, it's not that difficult from a freeholder's perspective. They'd probably hire a solicitor and a valuer (which the leaseholder will have to pay for), then sign the documents and wait for the money to arrive.

divadee

D_M_E wrote: »

Another problem I see looming is what are you going to do when one of them wants to sell and wants to extend their sub-70 year lease?

Reclaim more than we paid for the freehold in the first place!!!!! One online valuation is saying approximately 18-22k for one of the leases and we have 3 in total that are very low.

In reality we will have very little to do, they will apply via the management company we will assign a solicitor (that they will pay for) and do the deal.

If they go the stat route it's easy. If they want the informal route we will take advice from the valuer and our solicitor.

divadee

I just wanted to update this. It has slowly got worse and worse living on site. We get abused on a weekly basis by one leaseholder. It has got us so down we are now thinking of selling up and moving.

It doesn't matter how many times we say contact the managing agents not us, we still get hassle and horrible words and looks.

We have had to issue a section 20 for some structural maintenance in the roof and 2 window lintels have dropped and ever since they arrived the abuse has got worse. They dont seem to understand that we have to pay a quarter of the bill as well as we are also leaseholders. They literally expect everything for free. They seem incapable of understanding what a service charge is for. It has got so bad with the lies and name calling from them that we are having to strictly enforce every single covenant in the leases just to make them stop and think. One such clause is no washing to be dried outside. We have a rear communal garden and have always let people put washing out. The management agents have no suggested we keep it strictly by the leases.

The leases also state that windows should be washed monthly. We had let this slide but now have to do it to stop the petty whinging about bits of the covenants. It is amazing how people will pick and choose parts of a lease they want to adhere to and not others!

AdrianC

BBH123 wrote: »

All this Freehold / Leasehold stress

All properties should be commonhold

To all practical intents and purposes, commonhold would be exactly the same as all four leaseholders jointly owning the freehold.

The other three leaseholders did not want that.

The only practical difference is that the OP wouldn't be piggy-in-the-middle, and the arguments would go from payment to commissioning.

bouicca21

I would love to buy the freehold of our block but I know perfectly well that one of the leaseholders would behave exactly as OP describes. He already does! The rest are pretty reasonable people.


OP have you discussed the possibility of a harrassment order? Because it does sound like it is above and beyond normal bad behaviour.

Alan2020

The issue here is the OP doesn’t seem cut to do this sort of business! Only communicate in writing. If someone comes harassing, send them written warning, bodycam and call police. Very soon everyone will toe the line. Enforce every covenant to an inch of its life and bill the leaseholder. Keep everything prompt and maintain building very very well. Bill the leaseholder for this.

Rent your flat and keep running the block ruthlessly within a micrometer of breaking the law.

itwasntme001

Agree with the above post. Also if the OP has a managing agent in place, depending what the lease says, shouldnt everything go through the managing agent? The freehold only needs to be contacted for things like lease extensions, approvals for changes to building etc.


OP - you do not seem cut out for the job as a freeholder. The freeholders i have known are ruthless and business minded.

markin

Would they have found out its him if he didn't tell everyone and let the company deal with it all? Unless they went hunting for the owner for some reason.


Could he say he sold it to the management company, or simply imply it was sold by saying its no longer any off his business.


If i moved i would keep it to make that money of them!

diggingdude

No need to lie, just refer everything to the managing company. I would remind them all you are looking forward to lease extension time

itwasntme001

Usually you have leaseholders complain about the freeholder. In this case its the other way around!