Change of Freeholder mid selling

jack1992

Hi all.

I am selling my Leasehold Flat. It was all progressing well until a week ago the Freeholder owner changed (they didn’t have to ask us as they did it via selling the company that owned the Freehold).

This means we now have a new agent looking after ground rent, insurance. The buyer solicitor wants a few queries answered on these topics and some LPE1 stuff (all the management company stuff is fine but they are separate to the ground rent co and are still the management agents).

It seems like the new agent is still setting our block up with all this detail and it could take forever (and another sales pack for £200!)

Has anyone encountered it? Could we exchange without the enquiries answered? It’s so frustrating...

Thanks

princeofpounds

The freeholder hasn't changed. It's still the same company, that company just has different shareholders. I don't mean to nitpick, it's just that distinction may be important sometimes. In particular, it's not clear to me why you require a new pack (although maybe I am wrong about that, it's a question posing as a statement).

It is not clear from your description what is going on with the managing agents. It sounds like the managing agents for the property are staying the same but that the ground rent agents have changed. That's not a big deal.

Ultimately none of this should matter too much. The managing agents for the property would normally be providing most of the information you require on behalf of the freehold company. Yes, it's possible that there are administrative delays because the managing agent and the new freehold company owners need to sort their own relationship out, but that's a real how-long-is-a-piece-of-string situation.

Yes, in theory the buyer can exchange without answers to enquiries, but they may not want to (or more to the point their solicitor may advise them not to). I am not sure

The LPE1 - unfortunately I don't believe you can compel them to produce one at the moment. But most freeholders will for a reasonable fee. The enquiries do not need to be made on this form either, it's just convenient for everyone.

https://www.lease-advice.org/faq/im-selling-my-property-is-my-landlord-obliged-to-respond-to-pre-sale-enquiries/

eddddy

So it sounds like new people are controlling the freehold, and your post sounds like there may be new managing agents as well.

This might make the buyer nervous, because there is no 'history' for the new people and new agents. They may be difficult to deal with, they may want to do lots of expensive work on the building etc.

(Sometimes when this happens there is a sudden flurry of repair costs - because the previous freehold company owners and/or managing agents were disinterested in the property and it fell into disrepair. So the new owners/agent start off by doing all the overdue repairs - and your buyer gets big service charge bills. Has the building fallen into disrepair?)

In simple terms, the buyer's solicitor probably wants to know things like..

• The name and address of the new managing agent - so that they can serve a Notice of Assignment (i.e. tell them about the new buyer)
• How much the new managing agent will charge to process the Notice of Assignment
• Whether the new owners/agent have plans to spend lots of money on repairs (which your buyer would have to contribute towards).
• And maybe generally check to see if anything else has changed, as a result of these changes.

jack1992

Wow, thanks both. Two really insightful comments and pretty much exactly whats going on. Here is the explanation more clearly

Company X owns Freehold. Employs Ground Rent/Insurance company and Management company
Company X is bought buy Company Y, so Y now owns Freehold.

Company Y keeps management company for day to day mgmt repairs. No change there. Changes Rent/Insurance company to new management company.

New management company doesn’t seem to have the ability to answer solicitors questions yet (as you both touch on they are questions on Insurance, Assignment fee (do they need to pay both for example, and Ground Rent questions). Seems from above this is less of an issue than the management company that deals with maintenance changing.

the issue is, I feel like this is going to take for ages and we are on a timeline to complete... 

thanks SO much for the effort in the replies...