How to buy the Freehold of a Good Leasehold?

normal

Hi
We recently bought a house and found out last minute that the freehold was held by a very elderly lady, who had inherited the property from her mother. We also found out the lease wasn't registered and is classified as a 'good leasehold'.
The ground rent is about £6 per year and the agency tasked with collecting stopped collecting a couple of years ago as it was more expensive than it was worth, but keep a tab on things for the owner out of goodwill.
As the lady is very old, we're concerned that she may either pass away, or pass on the ownership to someone else who may look profit from the leasehold. From what we've been told, she'd be more than happy to sell the freehold but it could be 'tricky'. 
Would it be possible for someone else to take the freehold and start either charging us something significant, or something else unpleasant?
Or how could we buy the freehold?

Many thanks

princeofpounds

Yes, you can buy the freehold. If you lease is over 80 years and with the ground rent so low, the cost will not be that high at all. Tell us the length of the lease, the value of the property, and whether the ground rent escalates and we can be more exact. Although you will have to pay your legal fees and hers.

All will be answered in detail at the link below:
https://www.lease-advice.org/advice-guide/houses-qualification-valuation/

If you haven't been in the property 2 years, you can't force the sale, so you would need to do what's termed an 'informal' purchase with the freeholder's consent. That just means a sale by private agreement rather than going through a tribunal, which is what you have to do if the freeholder does not want to sell. There is nothing tricky about this if both sides agree.

Your worries over what can happen if the freehold is taken over are almost certainly unwarranted. I don't have the time to explain why right now, but basically a lot of stories about freeholder problems don't really apply to single owner houses like yours, and are often outdated or mistaken (although not always). 

greatcrested

Deja Vu

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6209199/buying-freehold-and-not-registered-with-land-registry#latest

normal

greatcrested said:

Deja Vu

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6209199/buying-freehold-and-not-registered-with-land-registry#latest

It sounds so familiar! Are you in Sheffield?

Timaaeee

princeofpounds said:

Your worries over what can happen if the freehold is taken over are almost certainly unwarranted. I don't have the time to explain why right now, but basically a lot of stories about freeholder problems don't really apply to single owner houses like yours, and are often outdated or mistaken (although not always). 

I know this is an old post but in the area where we live there are lots of leasehold houses which have had the freehold bought by highly aggressive management companies and although the rent can be small (ours is £6 a year) they will try and charge extortianate fees for anything they think they can get away with - we were getting threatening letters demanding £200 because we had renewed our mortgage with a different provider till I pointed out that the actual charge in the lease for this was ten shillings and sixpence! They can be nasty to deal with so if you have the chance to buy the freehold I would definitely consider it as hopefully it will add value onto your property too.