Long leasehold house

Davesnave

jimmyjammy001 said:

Avoid leasehold houses at all cost, there are numerous amounts of horror story's on here, people can not extend or do anything to the house that they own, complete rip off for a house to be a leasehold

Frankly, for you to come along and write a simplistic comment like this after other well-respected posters have patiently explained the likely situation, is insulting.

Please read the thread yourself, properly.

Davesnave

Tomg84 said:

jimmyjammy001 said:

Avoid leasehold houses at all cost, there are numerous amounts of horror story's on here, people can not extend or do anything to the house that they own, complete rip off for a house to be a leasehold

For example, I used to live in older two bed terraced house, leasehold, 999 years. No maintenance charge. No increases to ground rent.  The ground rent was <£10 a year yet they only bothered to invoice every few years. It felt the exactly the same as a freehold house!

Like you, I bought a 3 bed house with the remainder of a 999 year lease way back in 1977. It cost me a shade over £9k.

It last sold in 2014 for £340k and it was still leasehold; that's how much the ground rent of £5 annually (never collected) bothered other owners.

Jimmyjammy will probably look at those stats and announce they're a horror story.  I suppose they are, regarding  the way house prices went in that city!

AlexMac

Tumtitums said:

Tumtitums said:

1. I have been told that a a house i am interested in is a leasehold one with 999 years and no service charges or ground rent (he’s not received a bill since he’s owned it)
2. I was really only interested in freehold houses. Should i consider this as being the same as a freehold...
3. I also a bit concerned that the property has no access to the back of the house  as its right up against the boundary and the gardens of  houses on another street, should i be concerned about this 

(and later )

4. I guess its the solicitor's responsibility to make the buyer aware of any issues in the lease ? I'm also curious as to why you didn't convert it to a freeholder as some answers say that this would be quite easy to do ....

You've probably had enough good replies, but to add a little based on anecdotal experience, as our kids discovered the house they were buying (and subsequently did buy) was leasehold...

1. Assuming "he" is the vendor- you probably already know you can't trust anything "he" says unless it's in writing to your solicitor and this part of the contract so you can take action for redress if there are any negative impacts later; so ask your solicitor'

2. Not quite; again ask your solicitor to advise on the lease.  Our kids discovered that there wasn't really a lease as such on their place, other than one one dated about 1900, from a local semi-feudal estate, on the whole field where their street was built in late Victorian times.  Their own solicitor thought this so unsatisfactory that she advised them to walk away.  The vendor got huffy, pointing out that the house had sold on many times over the past 100 years, and that many houses locally (this was on the Isle of Wight) had similarly sloppy tenure.  She effectively suggested they get a local solicitor and dump their one "with her fancy, fussy, London ways"!  But they wouldn't budge.  Because they really wanted the house, and they were buying at a low point in the local market, they instructed their solicitor to bust a gut and sort it out.  They helped; by the time the freehold had been bought out, Daughter-in-law was on first name terms with contacts in the Freehold estate and at the Land Registry (she is a tad determined, is dear D-i-L). Added two months to the process. But having sold well in London, they swallowed a couple of months in a holiday let so the kids could start school over there.  They even paid the couple of grand it cost as the vendor was skint (and they really liked the house)
 
So ask yourself- once your solicitor gives you full advice, will you have problems selling on when, almost inevitably, you move again in future.  Will  your buyers solicitor discover anything that causes potential buyers to have cold feet?

3. Concerned? Not necessarily. We have mates in Brighton; again in a 100-year old house - in this position.  Didn't worry them.  Again, ask your solicitor if, in the event that you need repairs; decorations, pointing, gutters, roofing... there are any legal conventions about access, scaffolding etc.  Then maybe ask the neighbours if that's ever been necessary or is likely to be an issue.  Most people allow neighbours' contactors' scaffolding to be errected on their land, if absolutely necessary, with a party wall agreement, because most people are reasonable.

4. I refer the learned gentleman/woman to my earlier reply; #2; Yes you guess right; that's why you pay them- to advise and protect you. In the case of our kids' (now freehold) house, presumably 100 years of generations of past owners didn't care / couldn't be 4r5ed?  Do you?

Good luck