Awful house buying experience

MascoloStatusCorp

Hi guys. This post is more to just vent, but any advice would be welcome. 

Me and my partner have been looking for a house since Jan this year. Not too long I know. Anyway, first house we had accepted we had to pull out because the estate agent withheld important information which made the house unbuyable (for us personally). Fast forward a couple of weeks, we see a house we LOVE and we put in asking price an hour after visiting. This is the same estate agent as before. So we get a move on, we do everything correctly – we get a survey done and paid for, we get mortgage application and pay for the valuation, we order and pay for our searches – and BOOM, we find out that the property is LEASEHOLD instead of FREEHOLD. I try not to panic and get to the bottom of it, considering we love his house and it’s an old house with hundreds of years left on the lease and peppercorn rent. But no one can find the freehold title, its not registered and its just messy.

We’re devastated and feel betrayed and let down – especially by the seller and the estate agent who mis advertised this for so long. We’ve lost a couple thousand, our time, and the house we loved – as well the fact that the housing market is insanely ridiculous at the moment so the house prices have risen and all the good stuff is gone within days. I can’t stand the process in this country – it’s so volatile and we have no confidence or rights. Anyway, just my rant. Thanks for reading.

moneysavinghero

Maybe stepaway from the market for a bit. Staying in the market is only fueling the crazyness.

And never ever use that EA again.

MascoloStatusCorp

moneysavinghero said:

Maybe stepaway from the market for a bit. Staying in the market is only fueling the crazyness.

And never ever use that EA again.

Probably good advice. Hard to do so because we were so looking forward to moving into our new place. What if we see somewhere we think would be great? Also, the EA have so many properties in Bristol. Very frustrating. 

ciderboy2009

What is it about the leasehold you don't like?  If it's got hundreds of years left at a peppercorn rent then it's near as dammit freehold.

You tend to find a lot of older properties in Bristol have this set up.  It's only newer leasehold properties that you really need to worry about and read the lease with a fine-tooth comb.

Irishpearce26

How did the advertise the house to mislead you? Did they omit that it was leasehold or did they state it was freehold?

caprikid1

"You tend to find a lot of older properties in Bristol have this set up.  It's only newer leasehold properties that you really need to worry about and read the lease with a fine-tooth comb."

The leases can also be bought for a few hundred pounds.

MascoloStatusCorp

Irishpearce26 said:

How did the advertise the house to mislead you? Did they omit that it was leasehold or did they state it was freehold?

They had freehold advertised all over.

MascoloStatusCorp

ciderboy2009 said:

What is it about the leasehold you don't like?  If it's got hundreds of years left at a peppercorn rent then it's near as dammit freehold.

You tend to find a lot of older properties in Bristol have this set up.  It's only newer leasehold properties that you really need to worry about and read the lease with a fine-tooth comb.

I don't like the covenant stating I can't change the footprint or build a garage or whatever without writing and receiving consent from the freeholder, a freeholder who cannot be found. 

ciderboy2009

MascoloStatusCorp said:

ciderboy2009 said:

What is it about the leasehold you don't like?  If it's got hundreds of years left at a peppercorn rent then it's near as dammit freehold.

You tend to find a lot of older properties in Bristol have this set up.  It's only newer leasehold properties that you really need to worry about and read the lease with a fine-tooth comb.

I don't like the covenant stating I can't change the footprint or build a garage or whatever without writing and receiving consent from the freeholder, a freeholder who cannot be found. 

Ok, so how often have you heard about action being taken against people who have breached covenants?  Particularly on older properties (I'm assuming 1930's or thereabouts as in a lot of Bristol).

I've only heard of one person ever being threatened with action.  This came from a developer on a new build property when it was a blatant breach.

Even then it was never taken any further (and they continue to breach that covenant to this day).

MascoloStatusCorp

ciderboy2009 said:

MascoloStatusCorp said:

ciderboy2009 said:

What is it about the leasehold you don't like?  If it's got hundreds of years left at a peppercorn rent then it's near as dammit freehold.

You tend to find a lot of older properties in Bristol have this set up.  It's only newer leasehold properties that you really need to worry about and read the lease with a fine-tooth comb.

I don't like the covenant stating I can't change the footprint or build a garage or whatever without writing and receiving consent from the freeholder, a freeholder who cannot be found. 

Ok, so how often have you heard about action being taken against people who have breached covenants?  Particularly on older properties (I'm assuming 1930's or thereabouts as in a lot of Bristol).

I've only heard of one person ever being threatened with action.  This came from a developer on a new build property when it was a blatant breach.

Even then it was never taken any further (and they continue to breach that covenant to this day).

I haven't looked up actions against people who have breached a leasehold lol. I'm a FTB who doesn't have experience with the particulars of leaseholds and I don't know anyone who go around talking about it. I wanted to be freeholder when I bought my first house, not someone who pays for the privilege to stay in some rooms for 900 years.

comeandgo

At least you are learning which questions to ask and to do research on what matters to you, don’t take anything at face value.