Buying share of freehold on completion?

leypt1

Hi,
We're in the process of purchasing a leasehold flat and know that we'd be interested in pursuing a share of the freehold at some point to enable us to get the loft space demised to the flat.

It seems logical to us to try and do this on completion so that we don't have to double up on legal fees, survey fees etc, and would currently also save on stamp duty.

We know that we could apply for a lease extension on completion, but has anyone ever tried to purchase a share of the freehold on completion? What are your experiences of this, and how much would it cost in relation to simply extending the lease?
Thanks very much!

cooltt

leypt1 said:

Hi,
We're in the process of purchasing a leasehold flat and know that we'd be interested in pursuing a share of the freehold at some point to enable us to get the loft space demised to the flat.

It seems logical to us to try and do this on completion so that we don't have to double up on legal fees, survey fees etc, and would currently also save on stamp duty.

We know that we could apply for a lease extension on completion, but has anyone ever tried to purchase a share of the freehold on completion? What are your experiences of this, and how much would it cost in relation to simply extending the lease?
Thanks very much!

The shorter the lease the more expensive it it to extend, around 15-20K on a lease of 80 yrs or less.

Slithery

Do the current owners of the freehold want to sell you a share? If not then you can't buy it.

There is also no guarantee that owning a share would enable you to get the loft demised to your lease.

greatcrested

First obvious question is: who is/are the current freeholder(s)?

What makes you think that owning a share of the freehold would enable you to "get the loft space demised to the flat."? that would require the agreement of the other sharer(s), who would almost certainly want compensation assuming they agreed.

And what makes you think the current freeholder(s) will want to sell a share?

eddddy

"Share of freehold" is a slightly misleading term - you cannot really buy a "share of freehold" in the way you suggest.

Somebody will own the freehold of the building. You can try to buy the freehold, if you want - but the freeholder might not want to sell it to you.

Sometimes all the leaseholders get together and jointly buy the freehold - and that results in  what's called a "share of freehold".

But whoever currently owns the freehold will probably know that the loft has development potential, so it's unlikely that they'd sell it to you cheaply.

leypt1

Thanks everyone, all helpful feedback. I agree that this is a bit of a gamble, and we haven't incurred any fees yet so this is v much part of our decision making process.

Points in our favour - we would occupy the whole of the top floor and currently have sole access to the loft through our flat. It's in a conservation area and so building an external staircase, formers etc is probably going to be difficult for the freeholder. Ground rent is currently £10 pa so they clearly aren't making revenue on the property currently.

What do you think?

leypt1

And sorry, freeholders are a major housing association

AskAsk

if i have understood your question, are you saying you want to make the purchase of the freehold part of the conveyancing process? if so, that would be difficult.  i think they do them for new build but that is because it is sold as leasehold with conversion to freehold in plan.

have you asked the HA if you can buy a share of the freehold?  i would expect the answer to be no.  and i would also expect that they will not allow you to adopt the soft space and take it into your own property as the loft space may be needed for the rest of the building, like inspection and repairs to the roof, insulation for the block etc.  i would guess there is access to the loft for the HA, should they need to access it at the moment, and I therefore doubt they will be able to stop this access.

how long is the current lease?  extending the lease can be very expensive as it is up to the freeholder to determine the price.  our friend is trying to extend her lease on a 3 bedroom flat and has been quoted £80,000 to do so.  she is stuck as she hasn't got that sort of money and she can't sell the flat without extending the lease, unless she puts it into auction for a lot less than market price.

eddddy

leypt1 said:

What do you think?

You need to explain what you want to buy. (There is no such thing as buying a "share of freehold" in the way you suggest.)

• Perhaps you mean you want to buy the freehold of the whole building.
• Or perhaps you mean you want to club together with the other leaseholders to jointly buy the freehold of the whole building.

leypt1

eddddy said:

leypt1 said:

What do you think?

You need to explain what you want to buy. (There is no such thing as buying a "share of freehold" in the way you suggest.)

• Perhaps you mean you want to buy the freehold of the building.
• Or perhaps you mean you want to club together with the other leaseholders to jointly buy the freehold of the building.

Thanks very much for your responses! It's the latter, which means the neighbours are also a wildcard.

We haven't asked the HA, the lease is currently 87 years, and we would be looking to make this a part of the conveyancing process. From these responses we are leaning towards walking away, but out of interest what makes it particularly difficult to buy during conveyancing?

eddddy

AskAsk said:

 extending the lease can be very expensive as it is up to the freeholder to determine the price.  our friend is trying to extend her lease on a 3 bedroom flat and has been quoted £80,000 to do so.  

You or your friend need to start a new thread about that - what you say is very likely to be misleading or incorrect.