When should I put my house on the market

apcorbett

So here's the situation:

Just moved in to a lovely new house - old maisonette now vacant

• 59 years remaining on lease
• Lease extension not practical due to cost (£20,000+) and time (minimum 18 months)
• Troublesome landlord and management company - being resolved by Right to Manage being taken out
• Service charges £900 per year, Ground Rent £250 per year
• Needs work doing:
  • Re-plaster of corner of living room ceiling after burst pipe
  • Re-plaster of bathroom, and decorate (new suite already in place)
  • New carpets in both bedrooms
  • Re-paint of main bedroom
  • Completion of tiling in the kitchen and general tidying

The question is:

Do I put it on the market now, in the condition it is in or
Do I wait until all the work is done (which will take around 3-4 months), and continue to pay mortgage (600pm) and all service charges etc.

Any advice??

Poppy9

Most cost effective is to get someone to do the work for you within a week and then rent it out till management issues resolved. Else get it done up and sold asap. Not worth doing it yourself over 4 months if its going to cost you £2.5k in mortgage repayments etc when you could get the work done for £1k

Wow can't believe they want £20k for freehold. Is this allowed? If you did buy it how much would it increase your property value by?

dougk_2

You should certainly give it a makeover before selling to get a good price, but as Poppy9 said you need to resolve all the issues otherwise it will but people off.

nrsql

>> Lease extension not practical due to cost (£20,000+) and time (minimum 18 months)

That sounds a lot - depends on the property I guess.
Have a chat with a solicitor - you can serve notice to force a lease extension of 90 years (I think) and peppercorn ground rent if you've owned the flat for long enough. I'm going through that process at the moment.

This is what I understand from my solicitor so might not work out.

A 59 year lease might cause mortgage problems depending on where the property is.

see
http://www.lease-advice.org/legsmain.htm
http://england.shelter.org.uk/advice/advice-195.cfm

theGrinch

there is a leasehold extension formulae (marriage contract) where you have held the lease for more than 2 years. freeholders can not demand anything.

your sale problem may be compounded by short lease (ie less than 75 years). your potential market may be restricted to cash only.

nrsql

>> freeholders can not demand anything.
Don't think that's true.
The amount for the lease extension has to be fair and is based on the existing lease period and value of the property.
They cannot charge a ground rent beyond the expiration of the existing lease.