Purchasing the freehold

auntiesmirnoff33

Hi
We purchased a Bellway property in 2006 and were at our maximum budget. Bellway advised it was leasehold however we could purchase the freehold for approximately £1500 at any time in future. We went ahead with the leasehold. Our leaseholders are now Chime Properties which is managed by Chancery St James who we paid £ 50 to a few months ago to apply for the freehold. They initially came back to us with a figure of £12500 and after a few months is now at £10600 and they will not negotiate any further. We have looked at online calculations and they all come out at approx £4000 maximum. We advised Chime this and they are not interested. We contacted a solicitor who advised they could negotiate however their fees alone were approx £5000. I feel stuck here and don’t know what to do. I feel aggrieved that Bellway and our solicitors( who Bellway recommended) didn’t advise of this and also Chime properties are massively over inflating their price. Has anyone any experience or advice please ?

AdrianC

Yes, there's a statutory process to buy the freehold, or you can negotiate outside that. The legal fees from going down the statutory route may well be higher than going down the mutual agreement route.

Unless you go down the statutory route, they have no obligation to sell, and they are free to ask whatever price they wish. The amount that somebody else asked a decade and a bit ago is irrelevant.

Have a read of...
https://www.lease-advice.org/faq/i-own-a-leasehold-house-how-do-i-buy-the-freehold/
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mortgages/buy-freehold-right-to-manage/
https://hoa.org.uk/advice/guides-for-homeowners/step-step-guide-buying-freehold/
and plenty of other similar sources

D_M_E

Did you get the phrase "£1500 at any time in the future" in writing?

Are you sure it referred to the freehold purchase price, or the solicitor's fees for purchasing?

Also, I see you made the mistake of using the builder's reccommended solicitor. Personally I think this is a big mistake from previous experience.

auntiesmirnoff33

Hi
No didn’t get it in writing in hindsight we were very naive as this was our first purchase. I certainly wasn’t advised the implications of freehold or leasehold by solicitor or building company .

auntiesmirnoff33

Thank you I shall look into these. We were incredibly naive 12 years ago and are now in financial hardship and great stress as we did not fully understand the implications and our solicitor that they recommended to speed the purchase didn’t fully advise us.
Thank you for your reply

AdrianC

Your solicitor is the only "friend" you have in the purchase process - they act for you. Taking the suggestion of the other side of the negotiations... well... you can see how there might be an issue.

But you say you are now "in financial hardship"? If that's the case, then I very much doubt that buying the freehold is going to resolve that. How much is your annual ground rent? Because if that's high, that'll increase the freehold purchase cost - you're compensating the vendor for the loss of income.

auntiesmirnoff33

If we were to buy the freehold we could sell the property which would realease us from our financial obligations. At present the leasehold is getting less and less and no one will buy our property. The ground rent is £145 a year.

AdrianC

You can sell it leasehold. It's very unlikely that the difference in sale value would be more than the cost to buy the freehold - so you'd be better off selling it now.

hazyjo

How many years are remaining on the lease?

eddddy

probonolegalservicesuk wrote: »

Take the matter to the 1st tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) for them to assess the value

a) That's not how it works

b) This thread is over 5 months old



Edit to add...

Just in case anybody wanting to buy the freehold of their leasehold house comes across this thread - here's a link that describes the different options etc:
https://www.lease-advice.org/topics/?topic=houses-buying-the-freehold-and-lease-extension