Freeholders delaying flat purchase. Advice please!

Dollhouse123

For context I'm a solo FTB and my offer on the flat was accepted on 1st December 2020. Enquiries were raised in December and a few more were raised mid January. All of the enquiries that have been passed on to the freeholder have not been answered and it's been months! I've chased the solicitors and the agents who have also chased the freeholders but to no avail. I've even given a deadline (end of April) but that's been and gone. My mortgage offer expires in a month and I don't want to go to the effort of extending it.

Does anyone have any advice, I'm pulling my hair out!

hazyjo

Have they had any contact at all? I mean, are they sure they're even at the address they're (presumably) writing to, or even still alive for that matter?

May prove to be an absent freeholder.

No managing agents?

Dollhouse123

Yes they're around, the vendors solicitor was assured 'they were dealing with it' (they being the freeholders). My solicitor was told by the managing agents that their client was committed. 

This was months ago though so I don't know what the hold up is. 

eddddy

The person you need to chase is the seller.

The seller needs to contact the freeholder (or their managing agent) - ideally by phone - to find out what the delay is, and find out when they will provide the answers to the questions.

When solicitors chase things up, they generally just send an email and wait to see if anyone replies. The seller might get better results by phoning them and being a bit more persistent.

Most freeholders wouldn't speak to the EA or to you - so it really needs to be the seller who does this.

NameUnavailable

The seller would have paid for a lease pack - a summary of the information that your solicitors would need such as details of insurance, maintenance plans and past charges/accounts.

Have they had this? Are the queries raised regarding items in or not in the pack?

I would in any case be wary of buying a flat where there is an uncooperative freeholder as you will only face these same issues when you try to sell.

Dollhouse123

eddddy said:

The person you need to chase is the seller.

The seller needs to contact the freeholder (or their managing agent) - ideally by phone - to find out what the delay is, and find out when they will provide the answers to the questions.

When solicitors chase things up, they generally just send an email and wait to see if anyone replies. The seller might get better results by phoning them and being a bit more persistent.

Most freeholders wouldn't speak to the EA or to you - so it really needs to be the seller who does this.

Thanks I'll get the seller to contact the freeholder. I don't have direct contact with the seller though so I will have to go through EA 

AnotherJoe

Id look elsewhere, as said what happens if you buy and then have issues that need the freeholders cooperation?

Dollhouse123

NameUnavailable said:

The seller would have paid for a lease pack - a summary of the information that your solicitors would need such as details of insurance, maintenance plans and past charges/accounts.

Have they had this? Are the queries raised regarding items in or not in the pack?

I would in any case be wary of buying a flat where there is an uncooperative freeholder as you will only face these same issues when you try to sell.

Yes we received the pack in December. The questions are about the works that are going on in the building at the minute. 

I agree, I've been considering pulling out of the purchase but I've been keeping an eye out on the market and this is by far the best property I've seen since I've started looking (location, layout, value for money)

Dollhouse123

AnotherJoe said:

Id look elsewhere, as said what happens if you buy and then have issues that need the freeholders cooperation?

I have been looking but I just cannot find better property within my budget. There's also no guarantee that the next property will have responsive freeholders.

SingleSTB

I'm in exactly the same situation at the moment too, @Dollhouse123

Any updates on what's happened since you posted?