New build has freehold AND leasehold?

pedrom

I'm looking at a New Build property to buy.
The house itself it detached and has a garden, all of which are freehold.
At the end of the garden is a coach house where the garage is located. The garage is leasehold for 125 years, guaranteed price not to raise for 25 of those years, about £170pa.
I cannot buy the house without the garage.

Can someone advise me on potential issues with this? Am I likely to face any issues in the future, like when I come to sell? I have no concerns that the price will spike to unreasonable amounts after the fixed 25 year period. I am more worried about if I should just avoid such a complicated property lease in the first place.

Thanks!

quantumlobster

I would be wary of this. For £170/year? Why not just sell the freehold? I suspect they want to keep hold of the land to do nefarious things with, like building a compact nuclear power station at the bottom of your garden, or something.

Or an access road or whatever. But probably a nuke plant.

pedrom

I thought the same (the bit about buying it - I can't say I had thought about a nuke plant)
I will ask if I can just buy it, but I assume I can't due to the apartment above the garage? It must be something to do with it being a coach house, right? I just don't understand what.

rijack

Is it your apartment (the coach house?) included in the house sale?
If not, maybe that is the reason? Potentially (or technically) if you got the freehold you would own the freehold for someone living in the coach house?

AdrianC

In effect, you're buying two things together.
You're buying a house and garden, and you're buying a garage.


The house and garden are freehold. That means you own the entirety of the building and the ground on which it sits.


Because of the way in which the garage is part of a building containing other units, it's not straightforward to simply own the freehold - it would inevitably include the flat above. So it's a lease on the garage element of that building.

It's absolutely standard for garages in blocks remote from the house themselves, and pretty much inevitable for "coach house" situations like this.

pedrom

No, the apartment above is not included.
If that was the case and I did own the freehold for the person buying the coach house apartment...does that matter to anyone? It's got to be owned by someone, after all. Does it matter if it's me or the estate managers?

AdrianC

pedrom wrote: »

No, the apartment above is not included.
If that was the case and I did own the freehold for the person buying the coach house apartment...does that matter to anyone? It's got to be owned by someone, after all. Does it matter if it's me or the estate managers?

It might matter to the flat owner. Doesn't he have at least as good a claim on owning it as you?

It would still be the same situation, though. You would still have a leasehold garage. You just might also own a third thing - the freehold on the building containing your garage plus somebody else's flat. You might own 100% of that freehold, or you might share ownership with the flat owner.

pedrom

AdrianC wrote: »

It might matter to the flat owner. Doesn't he have at least as good a claim on owning it as you?

I don't really know...I guess not, because it would be my building which sits on the ground? I don't really know how much of this works!

xylophone

Do you mean that the owner of the coach house is the freeholder of that whole building and will grant a lease of the garage(s) underneath his apartment?

pedrom

xylophone wrote: »

Do you mean that the owner of the coach house is the freeholder of that whole building and will grant a lease of the garage(s) underneath his apartment?

The freeholder would be the new build estate owner/builder/management type. I would assume the coach house owner would be on leasehold

rijack

It's probably a bit more and you would need the advice of a solicitor.. I imagine though there are a few things at play: (And i would stress, and will throughout the post, that i am not a solicitor)

1) If you did own the freehold, you can technically sell that on at a markup and the person in the coach house potentially has no say in the matter (again, i'm no solicitor but i can picture this situation)

"developer sells freehold on to house buyer / other land owner and is wanting to inflate the resale by 500%"

2) Could you then impose ground rent / something similar onto those living in the coach house? Which probably wouldn't be an ethical / good public image for the developer.. In addition you could potentially charge for any changes they want to make to their home?
"Developer sells on freehold covering family's coach house. They are now being charged hundreds in costs for living on the land"

(Again - not a solicitor - dont know how legal or possible it is..)

3) As the freeholder, would you have the ultimate decision as to what happens with the land? What if you want to make structural changes to your garage - how does that impact the apartment?


Granted the above are hypothetical, but i imagine if you did talk them into giving you the freehold, it would be absolutely CAKED in enforceable covenants.