Leasehold to freehold

Wd85

Hi,
I’m purchasing a bungalow which is currently a leasehold. We are buying the freehold (which has been agreed by the freeholder) in one transaction with the property and have just received our mortgage offer. We are about to instruct our solicitor but her assistant Isn’t in today for me to ask. So thought I’d ask here...
I’m just wondering if anyone knows roughly how long it can take for leasehold to then go to freehold? As I know searches are taking around 6-8 weeks in my area. I’m just wondering can it take that for the lease to the freehold? 

AdrianC

Once you own the freehold, there's really nothing different to the property being freehold.
You own both ends of the lease. You are your own freeholder. You can agree or refuse permission for things, you can charge yourself ground rent or not.

Yes, you can cancel it at LR if you wish - people don't always do so. It'll take as long as your solicitor takes to do it.

princeofpounds

What exactly are you asking here?

- How long will it take for the freeholder to sell the freehold?

- How long will it take to turn the leasehold into a freehold after you've bought both? 

Adrian is answering the second question, but it isn't quite clear.

Wd85

I’m wondering how long it takes to purchase the lease 

user1977

It'll depend how excited the freeholder and their solicitors are about doing it as quickly as you'd like. I doubt there's a standard answer to that.

princeofpounds

Wd85 said:

I’m wondering how long it takes to purchase the lease 

I'm pretty sure you mean purchase the freehold?

Purchasing the lease is purchasing the leasehold title to live in the property from the seller. Purchasing the freehold is buying the freehold title from the freeholder. 

The former takes about as long as any other housing transaction. Maybe a little bit longer as you will need a response to enquiries from another party, the freeholder, as well as the seller themselves. 

The latter - well it varies a lot. Legally it's just another property title, so again it takes about as long as any other housing transaction. It could be slower - freeholders may not have the same motivation to progress things quickly as a selling occupant might have, or it could be faster - as it just involves a legal title and not the physical property, there is less to do (no survey, no fixtures and fittings form etc.).

But because you are basically conducting two purchases here - a leasehold and a freehold title to the same property - you will run at the pace of the slowest of the two. It all needs to be ready to move ahead.

If I were you, I wouldn't be surprised if this takes 4 months. Yes, searches can be back in 6-8 weeks, but you should expect at least two rounds of enquiries back-and-forth (by snail mail, of course) before you get over the line. Those enquiries may not all be known until the searches come back, and they may necessitate digging up documents or data. Plus the whole system is quite jammed up at the moment.

Of course it could take 7 weeks, or it could take 6 months. 

eddddy

Wd85 said:

...and have just received our mortgage offer. 

What type of property did you specify in your mortgage application...

• A freehold bungalow, or 
• A leasehold bungalow?

If you specified a freehold bungalow, the lease will have to be terminated on completion, so that will be an extra chunk of legal work for your solicitor(s).

If you specified a leasehold bungalow, the lease cannot be terminated - you'd have to keep both the leasehold and freehold titles.


Freehold enfranchisement (i.e. buying the freehold from a freeholder) can be a bit of a specialist legal area. Conveyancing solicitors don't always understand the subtleties.

Hopefully, your using a solicitor with a conveyancing specialist/team and also a freehold enfranchisement specialist/team (it's often called Landlord and Tenant Law Team), as it's worth taking advice from both teams.

The legal fees will be higher than a regular leasehold purchase, because the solicitors will be dealing with 2 transactions from 2 sellers - plus checking the proposed freehold title details, and maybe canceling a lease.

In terms of timescales, all the extra work can probably be done whilst you're waiting for the searches. But then, if the searches show up problems, and you decide to walk away - you'll have more legal fees to pay.

Are you fairly confident that terms have been agreed with the freeholder? That can also be a cause of delays.

denny07

Yes hello.  I am buying a freehold property with a leasehold also on the title register and have had a survey done and the report (88) bloody pages.  Later says it's 85yrs remaining so will I own it outright.  There is a lot of confusion about this.  Spleen vented..

canaldumidi

Is the freehold owned by the same person as the lease? If yes, you simply buy both together and timescale is as per any normal prurchase.

If they are owned and being sold by different people, then obviously there are two options:

1) the current leaseholder buys the freehold, then either sells both to you, or removes the lease and sells you the freehold. Either option will add (considerable?) time.

2) you make two seperate purchases from two seperate people. You'll want to coordinate these (to avoid ending up buying one but not the other) and it will take as long as the slowest trasaction.

Much will depend on what your mortgage lender is happy with....