finding ground rent on potential flat purchase

littlerock

My sister has sold her house and is thinking of buying a small flat to free up some cash. She has seen one she likes, built in 2004. There are a couple of concerns, firstly the lease is 84 years and she wants to find out how much it would cost to extend it. She asked the agents to find out and they who came back to say the owner had contacted the freeholder several times to ask but they have not responded.

Secondly the ground rent is £300. This on its own raises issues, as it places it in the category of an assured tenancy (flats outside London with GR over £250) and the ground rents locally are quite low, in double figures or around £150 for recent builds. She is concerned that it may have been raised since it was built and be one which is increased on a regular basis.

She asked the agents to find out how often the ground rent is increased - as a regularly increasing one would make it a no go purchase - before she gets too deep into negotiations to buy it but it seems the owner has just gone away on an extended cruise and the agents cannot contact her. This may be nothing sinister.

Is is possible to find the potential cost of increasing the lease and/or GR and how often it increases from official sources?. My sister had a look online at the Land Registry site, as recommended here, but could not find details of the individual flats in the block on the site, let alone ground rents. I have posted a question on their part of the forum, but wondered if anyone here has done this?

Any suggestions?

anselld

She can request a copy of the lease by submitting form OC2 to LR and paying a fee of £7. There is no download option.

She can get an estimate for the cost of Lease extension here ...
https://www.lease-advice.org/calculator/

However if the Freeholder is "absent" it presents significant difficulties for extension and indeed for the completion of any purchase.

She will need to wait two years after purchase to start a statutory extension unless the current owner serves s42 notice prior to completion.

littlerock

Just to add flat is on sale for £190000. Her solicitor tells her that once lease reduces to 80 years, it becomes more difficult and expensive to extend.

anselld

littlerock wrote: »

Just to add flat is on sale for £190000. Her solicitor tells her that once lease reduces to 80 years, it becomes more difficult and expensive to extend.

No more difficult but yes, more expensive.

littlerock

It seems the freeholder is not registered on the Land Registry. Any ideas how to identify, as owner has gone via property managers who are not replying, we are told.

Jox

It cost me £18k to extend the lease of my flat in 2015 (£15k to extend the lease and £3k legal fees). Extended from 68 years to 125 years. Value of flat was £220k