Concerned about venerable man with less than 50 years on his lease

lookstraightahead

How is he vulnerable? 

If you mean just because he's 72 then that makes me laugh out loud

if you mean because he can't possibly be as educated as you, that makes me shudder.

if this is just all your blinkered thinking, you need to regroup.

lookstraightahead

JackSprout said:

Just seems a case of nothing is wrong, but everything is wrong, someone is going to make money out of this and it wont be Jack, he's just an element of what seems to me to be a sick systems that appears to benefit everyone except Jack and his heirs. This would not happen if Jack was 32 and had a higher education.

How do you mean? Did you ask him what his qualifications were? 

JackSprout

Thanks for all your responses. 

NameUnavailable

JackSprout said:

So then it just leaves the new Freeholders treatment Jack going forward, which as I understand it cant deviate too much from the current situation, and I'm sure the new Freeholder is more interested in the long term return of the Freehold than short term ground increases, but if he doesn't like the new terms then I guess he will have to buy the Freehold of the new owner.

The freeholder can't just increase the ground rent, it is set out in the lease as to what the ground rent amount is.

The freeholder MAY decide to carry out a lot of maintenance work and land Jack with a large bill but that can happen with any flat and he would have to go to tribunal if he disagreed with the work or charges. The freeholder WILL want payment to extend the lease if Jack wanted to do that, but given the fact of his age now and length of lease he doesn't sound like he's bothered.

If he has relatives to leave his property to then they would benefit if he extended the lease but again, doesn't sound like that is anything he's worried about otherwise he'd have extended the lease before now.

What exactly is the problem you are worried about here?

Grumpy_chap

There was a recent thread where someone wrote about their family member that would outlive a short lease, but should they extend the lease?
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/78352809#Comment_78352809

The comments may be interesting to the OP for this thread.  Essentially, it comes down to how much an elderly person should deprive themselves of capital in order to increase the value of a lease that may pass to beneficiaries in the will.

AdrianC

In that thread, the leaseholder was 95. That's definitely more deserving of the titular epithet "venerable" than somebody two decades shy...

GaleSF63

JackSprout said:

I'm pretty sure I do understand the laws well enough to say that Jack has some rights here but if they are not explained to him he will miss out, to the advantage of someone else, e.g. not him.
I am trying to look out for the old fellow as well...

If he is vulnerable the last thing he needs is encouragement to pay out thousands of pounds for something that will only benefit someone else.

AdrianC

GaleSF63 said:

JackSprout said:

I'm pretty sure I do understand the laws well enough to say that Jack has some rights here but if they are not explained to him he will miss out, to the advantage of someone else, e.g. not him.
I am trying to look out for the old fellow as well...

If he is vulnerable the last thing he needs is encouragement to pay out thousands of pounds for something that will only benefit someone else.

Tens of thousands, more like.

https://www.lease-advice.org/calculator/
If it's a £100k flat with a peppercorn ground rent, then he's looking at £17-18k + legals.
And that fee is proportionate to value - if it's a £250k flat, then it's going to be more like £45k + legals...

csgohan4

So the question is, why would Jack be bothered about the lease? He would lose financial security to benefit others. No thank you very much. 

If the relatives are worried, then they should fork out the money. 

md258

Maybe Jack has just bought the freehold and will be bidding against you on the other flat so he can convert it into 1 big house?