Buying a leasehold flat

leaseholdzzz

Do you think there's any way to protect myself if this happens? An indemnity of some sort paid for by the seller? Or is that no longer possible because it is a known breach of the lease?

eddddy wrote: »

You can ask the seller if they have written consent from the freeholder for that. They probably haven't, and the leases probably make it impossible for the freeholder to give consent.

The seller might not want to ask the freeholder about this, because it might alert the freeholder to the fact there are no carpets - which might trigger enforcement action by the freeholder.

So you should buy in the knowledge that somebody might complain and you could be forced to lay carpet (and maybe have an 'emergency budget' to cover that).

davidmcn

leaseholdzzz wrote: »

Do you think there's any way to protect myself if this happens? An indemnity of some sort paid for by the seller?

In theory yes, but given the worst-case-scenario remedy is just "stick some carpet down" it's hardly worth it.

eddddy

leaseholdzzz wrote: »

Do you think there's any way to protect myself if this happens? An indemnity of some sort paid for by the seller? Or is that no longer possible because it is a known breach of the lease?

In your position, I might say something like this:

"You've breached the lease by having no carpet. If somebody complains and / or the freeholder takes enforcement action, I'll have to pay [say] £1,000 for carpets to deal with your breach of the lease.

Therefore, I'm reducing my offer by £1,000 (or £500 or whatever) because of that risk."

But different sellers might react in different ways.

Some sellers might readily agree, others may think you're 'playing nasty games' with them.

leaseholdzzz

Hi all, most of the pending queries have been resolved (with the exception of a few major ones).

In the LPE1 form, one of the questions asked is whether there have been any insurance claims made against the buildings insurance for the block in the last 3 years. The answer provided by the management co is "Not aware".

Is there anyone else that can claim on the policy other than the management co who arranges the insurance, collects the service charge and maintains the block?

leaseholdzzz

Hi all,

A final update - I pulled out of the purchase.

As my spidey sense told me, there were quite a few things they hadn't disclosed.

- The rough estimate for the "routine decoration" works was between £7k-11k (something to do with extra costs due to asbestos) per flat

- There is an ongoing insurance claim dispute over a rejected claim two years ago regarding damage to the roof. So their "Not aware" answer to the question about claims on the LPE1 form was a lie.

- There is a deficit of 49k in the accounts which they are yet to collect from the leaseholders. I don't even understand where they got the money from then?

The seller professes to not have known any of this and offered a small discount, I told him where he could shove it.

muhandis

Well done for getting all this information out of them, it can't have been easy. Buying a leasehold is something which requires a lot of digging and you were clearly up to it.

Good luck with the next one.

Andysandy

That is a lucky escape. I find it hard to believe that the seller was unaware.

leaseholdzzz wrote: »

- The rough estimate for the "routine decoration" works was between £7k-11k (something to do with extra costs due to asbestos) per flat
- There is an ongoing insurance claim dispute
- There is a deficit of 49k in the accounts which they are yet to collect from the leaseholders

leaseholdzzz

Next one?! God no.

Too many things are going on now to continue house hunting, especially in the Coventry area with all the car manufacturers around.

We will reassess again next spring.

muhandis wrote: »

Good luck with the next one.