Buying a house, want to change from leasehold to freehold, legal costs

burnleymik

Wondering if anyone could give some thoughts/advice please.


We have popped an offer in on a house we like, but it is currently a leasehold property. The vendor has shown us a letter from the freeholder offering them to buy the freehold for £950, which is something we would like to do, but I wondered how much more work it would create on the legal side of things and would it significantly increase the legal costs?


This is the first time we have moved in 18 years and have very little experience of buying and selling property.

da_rule

It would depend on the exact complexities that the title presents, but you’d probably be looking at your solicitor treating it as a completely separate purchase (which it is), so potentially doubling your conveyancing costs.

Although certain things, such as searches would probably not be needed.

G_M

Or you wait while the current owner buys the freehold and then sells that to you.

burnleymik

G_M wrote: »

Or you wait while the current owner buys the freehold and then sells that to you.

I did think about this, but they would also then incur the same legal costs, would they not?


I mean we haven't contacted the freeholder, so could they potentially change the price for us? Do you think we may be better to get the current owners to purchase and then cover the costs?

eddddy

When buying a freehold, the freeholder would normally expect you to pay their legal fees as well as your own.

Also, the letter won't be a binding offer - the freeholder can ask for more money, or change their mind about selling altogether.


If buying the freehold is important to you, you could arrange to buy both the freehold and leasehold at the same time as simultaneous transactions.

(That way you can't end up with just the leasehold, without the freehold - or vice versa)

Albala

G_M wrote: »

Or you wait while the current owner buys the freehold and then sells that to you.

^ I'd do that. Id wonder why they hadn't bought it before, TBH, if they have gone so far as to have had a quote. Like a lot of other potential buyers, I wouldn't even look at a leasehold house, so they were narrowing down their chance of selling by not buying the freehold, which seems a bit strange to me. Maybe they had to sell in a hurry or something.

SensibleSarah

It depends what kind of lease it is and how many years are left on it. If it's like mine (a 950ish years remaining, peppercorn rent, freeholder is the council) then it's a non-issue. You can buy it down the road if you want; but it's not essential. However, if it's a lease with less than 80 years remaining, which has clauses about increasing ground rent over time etc, then it's more of a concern.

Personally, I'm planning on buying mine in the next couple of years, assuming that the freeholder stands by the quote they made me verbally over the phone, so that when I come to sell it, the lease issue won't be there to put people off. But if I wasn't planning on moving, I wouldn't bother.

Albala

Depends on the lease, too. I t could be one where you have to pay if you apply for PP for anything, for example.

burnleymik

SensibleSarah wrote: »

It depends what kind of lease it is and how many years are left on it. If it's like mine (a 950ish years remaining, peppercorn rent, freeholder is the council) then it's a non-issue. You can buy it down the road if you want; but it's not essential. However, if it's a lease with less than 80 years remaining, which has clauses about increasing ground rent over time etc, then it's more of a concern.

Personally, I'm planning on buying mine in the next couple of years, assuming that the freeholder stands by the quote they made me verbally over the phone, so that when I come to sell it, the lease issue won't be there to put people off. But if I wasn't planning on moving, I wouldn't bother.

I believe the leasehold has over 900 years on it and the ground rent is minimal, something like £17 per year from what we have been told.


Yeah, I guess it's just a piece of mind thing and we have now had a quote back from the solicitors of around £400 inc VAT to do the conveyancing work to purchase the freehold.


I just hope the freeholder will give us the same price as they quoted the current owners, if they do then a total cost of ~£1350 all in doesn't seem that bad and may be an investment should we decide to sell on in future.


Thankyou all for the advice and replies.

Orianatristana2

here it is: manticonvert.com

hazyjo

Orianatristana2 wrote: »

here it is: XXXX

Orianatristana2 are you on the wrong thread, or are you spamming lol? Hit report, then un-hit, now not sure :think: