When a freehold is actually a leashold

NameUnavailable

I had the nightmare from hell with a leasehold property. It almost drove me to suicide it was so stressful. This was over a period of 5 years with a freeholder who was intent on milking us dry and used every trick in the book to apply excessive charges.

I wanted to challenge this at tribunal but it was going to cost me at least £15K in legal fees to do so, and potentially be liable to pay the freeholders costs as well (so add another £15K to that).

I use to work in property sales and yes, many people have leasehold properties and are fine, but there are also quite common problems as well. It's a case of being aware - and prepared - for what can happen.

Titus_Wadd

I lived in leasehold houses in the NW of England; all with 900+ years remaining, no covenants, £4 pa ground rent with no increases and no service charges.  There are mainly freehold houses where I live now in the SE(not including flats).

Having had a bad day dealing with the developer of surrounding unfinished new builds who holds us to ransom with covenants attached to our fleecehold property it's like living on a medieval fiefdom by comparison. *

Caveat emptor!  You need all the facts, ask all the "What ifs?" and if your solicitor rattles off some info keep asking what it means until it makes sense, then ask a few more "what ifs?".  At least you can make an informed choice.

*(I can't really complain because I knew what we were buying and knew exactly why the vendors were desperate to sell and accepted our offer for the sake of they're mental health.  But sometimes I still think very very dark thoughts about the builders...very dark...)

harib0uk

Thanks everyone, we’ve parked it for now, but ended up looking at another property that was also leasehold (not suitable). But hope to buy freehold.

In answer to the question why 999 year leasehold and not freehold:
I did read that in bygone years leaseholds were popular as landowners liked the status of owning large swathes of land but didn’t want to maintain them so sold leaseholds to release money and release them from maintaining the land but still having the status of being a landowner.

Davesnave

Two facts about my leasehold first purchase in 1977:

The ground rent of about £5 p.a was never collected.

I paid £9 251. It last sold for £340k in 2014, when it was still leasehold.

 I kept that small house for 10 years and then sold it for £58.5k.  I'll leave it to others to judge what sort of value it offered!

eddddy

NameUnavailable said:

I use to work in property sales and yes, many people have leasehold properties and are fine, but there are also quite common problems as well. It's a case of being aware - and prepared - for what can happen.

Exactly - there are 4.3 million leasehold properties in the UK, and I think most people who own them aren't particularly dissatisfied.

It might be more useful if you mentioned the specific examples of things about your leasehold property or the lease that caused you problems - so people would have things to look out for.

For example, was it the cost of lift refurbishment, roof replacement, cladding removal? (Because, for example, I suspect that some people buying a ground floor flat don't think about having the roof surveyed, or investigate the condition of the lift.)

And also why it was going to cost you £15k to go to tribunal. (For example, my FTT fee was £250.)

That kind of information could be enormously useful to people considering buying leasehold property.