Should I buy the freehold?

KiKi

Buy it, no question. You can then, as a freeholder, extend the lease of the flats at very little cost to yourself as the leaseholder.

As above, the split is arbitrary. I was in a share of freehold scenario where we each had an equal share of the freehold, but the leases were split 27.5 / 27.5 / 45 - that's the bit that actually matters in terms of cost. So all three owner-occupiers would buy the buildings insurance at an equal 33.3% split, then charge ourselves the 27.5 / 27.5 / 45% splits respectively!

But yes, buy it. Even if the other owner doesn't want to share it with you - and you buy the whole thing - then when they want to extend their lease you may well make your money back.

Note - you don't have to set up a limited company, either, not for two flats. In my scenario, we just split the costs. I usually paid the bills up front, and they paid me back.

Socajam

Agree with everyone
I have a 1st floor flat which was a semi detached house - lease when bought in 1989 - 999 years.
The ground floor is the owned by the landlord.
Ground rent 1 pound per year

Nlc

Please join the National leasehold campaign. Be very careful and dont do an informal lease extension or you could end up in a worse position.

eddddy

Nlc wrote: »

Please join the National leasehold campaign. Be very careful and dont do an informal lease extension or you could end up in a worse position.

You seem to have pulled up an old thread and mis-read it.

This is a thread about buying a freehold, and then instructing your solicitor to extend the leases to 999 years.

I think you are talking about a completely different situation.


(A major cause of the some of the problems with leaseholds is that people didn't understand leases they were buying and were confused by them.

Randomly adding irrelevant information to threads is likely to add to people's confusion, and make matters worse, not better.)