Awful house buying experience

princeofpounds

Hi OP.

I appreciate your point on the deceptive advertising. However, I would strongly suggest that you reconsider if you really like the property. If it is a very long lease with a peppercorn rent then as ciderboy states, it is not that different to owning a freehold. 

If the freeholder is absent - and if the freehold title is lost, will be absent forever - then no-one is going to be enforcing any covenants.

More to the point, you can still force the purchase of the freehold with an absent freeholder. The freehold itself will cost peanuts to buy. There will be a few grand legal fees for the Tribunal.

So if you want to own a freehold house, this building could still work for you. Just make sure you go through the process with a solicitor who is capable of handling the whole thing and understands your intentions from the outset, as they will then make sure the property is eligible to pursue your intended path.

This talks about blocks of flats but it's similar for leasehold houses. Google will help you find way more information on this topic.

https://www.bishopandsewell.co.uk/2020/03/06/buying-the-freehold-to-your-block-from-an-absent-landlord/

Voyager2002

MascoloStatusCorp said:

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.

What people are saying is that the difference between freehold and leasehold would not matter in practice. If you found a house that you loved and could afford, it is well worth discussing this issue with your solicitor before pulling out: in 90 per cent of cases it really would not matter.

Gavin83

Excuse my naivety on this but if the freeholder can't be found then who exactly are you pay the rent to?

MascoloStatusCorp

Gavin83 said:

Excuse my naivety on this but if the freeholder can't be found then who exactly are you pay the rent to?

It's not about the rent, it's more about the lack of control.

kazwookie

When I was house buying, for any property I liked, I down loaded the title deeds and plan for £3 each, it saved a load of bother over the type of problems you are having. One property I wanted was outside my budget, but it had a huge garden, which I planned on sell off half of it as a building plot, but the deeds showed that couldn't be done, so I moved on.

https://www.gov.uk/search-property-information-land-registry

MascoloStatusCorp

kazwookie said:

When I was house buying, for any property I liked, I down loaded the title deeds and plan for £3 each, it saved a load of bother over the type of problems you are having. One property I wanted was outside my budget, but it had a huge garden, which I planned on sell off half of it as a building plot, but the deeds showed that couldn't be done, so I moved on.

https://www.gov.uk/search-property-information-land-registry

Yea, this would've saved me some trouble - thanks.

Gavin83

MascoloStatusCorp said:

Gavin83 said:

Excuse my naivety on this but if the freeholder can't be found then who exactly are you pay the rent to?

It's not about the rent, it's more about the lack of control.

That's not my point. They're saying it's impossible to find the freehold title or anyone associated with it. If that's the case then who would the rent be paid to? Surely the person receiving the rent would be the person holding the title.

lookstraightahead

To be fair op you're taking on a mortgage so theoretically the house isn't "yours" til you own it outright ie the bank have first refusal.
so you might be overthinking the leasehold bit.

MascoloStatusCorp

Gavin83 said:

MascoloStatusCorp said:

Gavin83 said:

Excuse my naivety on this but if the freeholder can't be found then who exactly are you pay the rent to?

It's not about the rent, it's more about the lack of control.

That's not my point. They're saying it's impossible to find the freehold title or anyone associated with it. If that's the case then who would the rent be paid to? Surely the person receiving the rent would be the person holding the title.

Apparently the vendor hasn't paid it in years. 

MascoloStatusCorp

lookstraightahead said:

To be fair op you're taking on a mortgage so theoretically the house isn't "yours" til you own it outright ie the bank have first refusal.
so you might be overthinking the leasehold bit.

I understand that. Either way, it was this website who, when I found out about the Leasehold and came to see if anyone had a similar issue, said they would steer clear of a leasehold because it's more trouble than its worth - lol. I will take things I see here with a pinch of salt.