How to spot a dodgy leasehold?

peddles

Buying a freehold house with leasehold garage (has a flat above it - leasehold held by building developer)

I've just got a copy of the leasehold agreement - could anyone advise on what I should be looking out for in the agreement to help spot anything dodgy or concerning?

Thanks!

somethingcorporate

This is exactly what you are paying your solicitors for...

peddles

somethingcorporate wrote: »

This is exactly what you are paying your solicitors for...

I understand that. But what I'd like is to be able to quote particular parts of the agreement for clarification with the solicitor. I'd just quite like some tips on what to look for. With all the horror stories about new build leaseholds atm - all those people had solicitors and still got screwed over - I'd just like to try and get myself in a good position.
As a first time buyer..I don't even know what I should be asking the solicitor!

SmashedAvacado

3 years uni
1 year law school
2 years training
then a few years pqe

That'll give you ability to spot most of the issues, although add on a few more years for anything tricky. of course, you won't know if its tricky - as you don't know what you don't know.

SmashedAvacado

ask them

"please can you confirm that the lease is in a form that would be acceptable to the residential lending market"

need_an_answer

You have the document,we cant read it.

Presumably its multiple pages long and written in a format that at present when you scan look through it is something that you don't understand....

However sit down quietly and read it...if there are bits you don't understand ask your solicitor...they are used to explaining things and I have always found them quite happy to do that.

They will also read the document and highlight anything that they think you should be made aware of but they don't translate them word for word back to you so its always good to give the time to it to try and understand it yourself.

Every lease is different and theres bound to be something in it that you may need to make allowances for so there is no standard thing to "look out for" as such

peddles

SmashedAvacado wrote: »

3 years uni
1 year law school
2 years training
then a few years pqe

That'll give you ability to spot most of the issues, although add on a few more years for anything tricky. of course, you won't know if its tricky - as you don't know what you don't know.

ok...that's just an unnecessary way to reply. Get some context. FTB asking for a little advice. No need to be an a**hole.

peddles

need_an_answer wrote: »

Every lease is different and theres bound to be something in it that you may need to make allowances for so there is no standard thing to "look out for" as such

Thank you. That's more helpful. I was kind of hoping to hear "watch out for this lousy clause in a lot of dodgy leases"
But if that's not the case - I'll just do my best to read through the whole thing and ask a million questions to the solicitor

SmashedAvacado

Sorry, but i don't agree. Even if you read the document, you don't know what's "not there". If you're looking to save money, then there are millions of ways of doing it, but second guessing the job of a solicitor who is trained and spends thousand of hours doing exactly that, is not.

davidmcn

peddles wrote: »

But what I'd like is to be able to quote particular parts of the agreement for clarification with the solicitor.

What your solicitor would like is to read the whole thing for themselves.

need_an_answer

peddles wrote: »

Thank you. That's more helpful. I was kind of hoping to hear "watch out for this lousy clause in a lot of dodgy leases"
But if that's not the case - I'll just do my best to read through the whole thing and ask a million questions to the solicitor

You arnt really "expected " to know how the lease translates,that is the solicitors job...but they can only point out so much without being prompted.

Having said that it does become your responsibility to uphold the lease and further down the line you probably cant claim that you expected the solicitor to translate it word for word should there ever become an issue.


if its a photocopy you have go at it with a highlighter for the things you don't understand and I'm sure the solicitor will be happy to clarify any concerns you have.