Calling all (ex) leaseholders for new builds!

Rony

Hi All,

So I am in the process of buying a new build purpose built flat one bedroom in East London Royal Docks 210 years lease with parking space. I have been posting questions on MSE and one member suggested I join a Facebook group "National Leasehold Campaign". I posted my situation on there and I received many horror stories and pretty much a unanimous suggestion that I back out from my purchase.

However I understand that that group is made up of members who are likely to have had bad experience with leasehold and therefore became a member in the first place, and so I cannot shake off this feeling that their views, albeit real, are part of a skewed and biased sample.

I am therefore calling all leaseholders on here MSE, who hopefully represent a less biased sample. Please answer the following:

1) Please state your general location and lease remaining years if possible
2) How much in % terms has your service charge/ground rent increased over the years?
3) If you used to own a leasehold, how hard was it to sell, and was it at a reasonable resell value?
4) How many "large major works" occurred during your time in which you had to fork out a large lump sum?
5) How many times were there large major faults in which the NHBC did not cover you for? And how many times DID the NHBC cover you for?

Feel free to add any other issues you have faced.

If even this thread comes up as negative as the NLC thread, I actually may consider pulling out of this purchase.

Thank you,

EDIT: Also please happy stories are very welcome. I have come so far to buy this place, and would be gutted to have to turn it down because of nightmare stories that may or may not happen to me.

dnees

Hi. Well , we have an older lease , we did not realise what we were purchasing , like millions of others, just a peice of paper that says we can be in the property for so many years. We realise now, and it’s just the same for new build leaseholders, you do not purchase the building. You purchase time in it. So, that means you pay up when your landlord, ( you are a tenant) clicks there fingers and says ‘you owe me this much, pay up. Oh and by the way if you don’t pay up, I can legally get you out of my property. ‘ who on earth in there right mind and knowing this would pay up all that rent up front and leave themselves open to abuse and extortion ? 

eddddy

I'm not sure that general answers will help you too much with your buying decision.

Service charges (and their increases) will be heavily dependent on the services you are paying for. For example, there are leasehold blocks in East London with concierges, lifts, long wide carpeted communal corridors - and some blocks have water features, sculptured gardens etc. Steam cleaning the carpets, servicing the lifts, cleaning out the water features will be expensive. When the time comes for the lift to be refurbished and/or the carpets replaced, it must cost a fortune.

Similarly, if the leaseholders are responsible for the cost of maintaining any roads, parking areas, play areas etc that could impact the service charge hugely.

And if a few leasholders flood their flats (and their neighbour's below), or their fridge freezers catch fire, or vandals cause damage - resulting in lots of insurance claims, the freeholder's insurance premiums will sky-rocket.

The question about NHBC claims isn't really a leasehold related question - it would apply equally to new build freehold houses. It's more to do with the reputation of the developer - do they build good quality houses and flats.

The same with "major works" to a great extent. If you buy a freehold house and it needs "major works", like a new roof, or repainting the outside, you'd have a big bill to pay. (Although, you'd have more control over things like who does the job. But you'd also have the hassle of finding contractors, getting quotes etc.)

AdrianC

eddddy said:

I'm not sure that general answers will help you too much with your buying decision.

This with bells on.

Don't get ground rent and service charges confused.
Ground rent is specified in your lease. It cannot increase more than the lease allows it to.
Service charges are the cost of maintaining the common areas of the development. You may as well ask freehold house owners how much they spend on maintaining their property - because it's the same thing.

 I could tell you how much it's just cost to replace the septic tank at my freehold rural house. It's irrelevant to your urban flat on mains drains.
Likewise, I could tell you about the repairs to the external steps at our (let) leasehold flat in our nearest city. It's irrelevant to YOUR leasehold flat in a completely different part of the country.