Dilemma "Fleecehold"

Flugelhorn

pinkteapot wrote: »

p.s. And if you are buying a 2-3 year one, I'd avoid freehold with service charge. Just in case at the point you want to sell it's become a major issue but nothing's been done to fix it.

Looks like that might be case - as relivedsheff above says, there are recent cases of lenders refusing to lend.

Back to Rightmove :rotfl:

Flugelhorn

GDB2222 wrote: »

There’s an article on the BBC
'Fleecehold': New homes hit by 'hidden costs' https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-46279048

It seems a bit OTT, to be honest. A woman who refuses to pay £150 a year because she doesn’t think the work is good enough. A man who wishes he’d never moved - because of a charge of £400 a year. There are open spaces, and the estate needs work to maintain and improve it.

We live in a garden suburb, and we pay £150 a year to the local suburb trust for administration of the conservation area, and it seems great value to me.

I think the current amount is not such a problem, it is the knowledge that it could increase +++ and if you don't pay they can repossess the house

getmore4less

RelievedSheff wrote: »

The latest articles about this in the news this week have been brought about because a lender has refused to lend on a property with estate management fees. So it is already becoming a bigger issue than previously and could become an even bigger problem if more lenders jump on the band wagon.

The government and other parties are all saying they are going to build more houses per year but until they sort out issues like these they don't stand a chance. Local authorities can't/won't adopt green spaces due to budget cuts, lenders won't accept management companies, so who sorts outs the green spaces that the planning departments insist are included within new developments?

The developers could solve the problem, if people stopped buying they would soon restructure shared space obligations.


If lenders stop lending where there are shared financial liabilities that's the lease based property ownership stalled.

Scotland has the equivalent of freehold with financial obligations.

There will be options that remove the current issue.

Shared ownership of the freehold of the shared spaces with the financial liabilities seperate from the property with the house.
...

ethank

The issue here really is that local councils are not wanting to take on the maintenance of new estates, or expect so much in commuted sums in developers that it is cheaper for them to have a management charge.