Leasehold Problems

Sherrykake

I am in the process of buying a house that is leasehold.  I have my mortgage offer and all searches etc are complete, we were hoping to be exchanging contracts very soon however,  my solicitor has just received all of the information from the management company relating to the lease and has some serious concerns about it.  The ground rent currently stands at £270 per year and has requested that this be either capped at £250 or a clause put in the lease to say that the mortgage company will be contacted if we fail to pay the ground rent.  My solicitor has also stated that at present the lease does not say that the management company have to carry out any maintenance, but it also says that we do not have to pay anything to contribute to any maintenance.  My solicitor wants a deed of variation to the lease correcting this issue.  Has anyone else had a similar experience?  Is it a lengthy process? 
At the moment my solicitor is all very doom and gloom about it, yet the solicitor for my seller seems to think that there is a quick fix and it can get sorted very quickly!

Experience from anyone else with similar experiences would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks very much.

GDB2222

Your solicitor has to protect your lenders as well as you, so this is not going ahead without the lease variation. The freeholder could be incredibly quick, or incredibly slow. Who knows?

As to what the seller’s solicitor says, Mandy Rice Davies applies.

Personally, I'm a pessimist and I would look for a new property.

davidmcn

Sherrykake said:

My solicitor has also stated that at present the lease does not say that the management company have to carry out any maintenance, but it also says that we do not have to pay anything to contribute to any maintenance.

Is there anything needing maintained?

rik111

I'd move on if I were you. Even with the variation to the lease sounds like nothing has been maintained for years. Doesnt sound like it will be a quick fix either, very sloppy freeholder who doesn't seem to give a shi... about maintaining the building.

davidmcn

rik111 said:

I'd move on if I were you. Even with the variation to the lease sounds like nothing has been maintained for years. Doesnt sound like it will be a quick fix either, very sloppy freeholder who doesn't seem to give a shi... about maintaining the building.

They're buying a house, from a leaseholder who will (almost certainly) have been responsible for maintaining the building. Like I asked the OP, is there actually anything needing maintained by the freeholder? 

Racky_Roo

I have just had the same issue but i'm the seller. Luckily mine was resolved without a deed of variation as it turned out the residents association has their own sublease and as a shareholder in the residents association I'm not going to agree to the repossession of my own flat. Worth getting the solicitor to check if there is a sublease as mine missed it and we only found out when asking the freeholder for a deed of variation