Selling leasehold flat timescales

parcival

Sold a leasehold flat in South London. It completed last December - took 4 months with no chain although buyer did need mortgage.

LAD917

Maybe I'm lucky, but I haven't had to do a management pack twice.  On occasion, certain information needed to be updated, and either the managing agent provided it for free (e.g., insurance had expired), or the buyer's solicitor accepted an unofficial copy from me (e.g., screenshot that I had paid the service charge).  I have, however, had experienced where the lack of a management pack was holding up the sale for weeks. I'd err, as the OP did, on the side of requesting it earlier v. later.

I cannot imagine waiting for the information that's in a management pack, or feeling committed to a sale or a price without seeing it. Whatever the cost, IMO it's worth avoiding 2-3 months of waiting and spending other money only to discover something that might make you back out.  E.g., the financials are a mess, multiple shareholders are in default, huge expenses are coming up, service charges are rising, the grounds are infested with knotweed, etc. etc.

In my perfect world, sellers would need to supply all of the standard forms (including LPE-1) to the buyer, and the buyer would need to read and acknowledge them prior to even offering.  It's no mystery to me that 1/3 sales fall through given how little information most people have when they offer.

justworriedabit

We bought a leasehold flat years ago, seller had no chain and we were little mortgage - took a few months as the car parking was managed, leased buy someone else. Same thing happens when selling. We will never buy another leasehold flat with a lift, congieire and parking as service charges are high and complex sales. We rented it out but not worth the hassel.

We bought a cheap freehold house to do up years ago, it was chain free and we were as good as cash, took under 4 weeks and no online solictors used.

Flats/leases chain free can be done within 6/8 weeks.

wigwam

Sale of my leasehold flat has been ongoing for 4 months, my partners 5 months. In hindsight I would have chosen different  (more expensive) solicitors but changing now would possibly slow things more. Frustrating and cost us more in the longrun as we could have been paying for one flat instead of 2. 

lozenlady

We are FTB and had an offer accepted on a leasehold flat in mid Dec and we exchanged at the end of March and are completing in 2 weeks. So took us approx 4 months, with no major hold ups and a small chain. 

Our mortgage was fast tracked as previously approved for a different property, so just a change of address.

megacasto33

can you help  i am the freeholder of my mums house and mum is the leaseholder under peppercorn. mum is now in a care home so she does not live there no more. ive was reading the leaseholder and it states she cant sublet it or morage it. social services are now trying to take our house  can they do that? because shes left and the place is suport to go back to the freeholder

lozenlady

megacasto33 said:

can you help  i am the freeholder of my mums house and mum is the leaseholder under peppercorn. mum is now in a care home so she does not live there no more. ive was reading the leaseholder and it states she cant sublet it or morage it. social services are now trying to take our house  can they do that? because shes left and the place is suport to go back to the freeholder

Hi megacasto33, you will be better off starting your own thread for this to get replies and advice.

Tiglet2

megacasto33 said:

can you help  i am the freeholder of my mums house and mum is the leaseholder under peppercorn. mum is now in a care home so she does not live there no more. ive was reading the leaseholder and it states she cant sublet it or morage it. social services are now trying to take our house  can they do that? because shes left and the place is suport to go back to the freeholder

If you start your own thread, more people will respond to you.

However, does your mum own her property?  If she is now in a care home, then social services require the property to be sold in order to pay for her care.  If the care home fees are not being met by social services, who is paying for her care at the moment?  A leasehold property (flat?) belongs to the leaseholder.  The property does not transfer back to the freeholder just because the owner is not living there, unless there are no more years left on the lease term.  The property can be sold to raise funds for the care costs.  You say you are the freeholder, but presumably you do not own the leasehold to the property, or are you a joint owner with your mum?