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

elsien

JackSprout said:

And another one, this time with shared ownership, school friend of my wife's, leasehold knew nothing about it until I asked her! She will be bringing the paper work around next month for me to look at. 3 people in 3 weeks normal people that appear to have no idea about leaseholds that they are party to.

Without wanting to be rude, perhaps they should get advice from someone who fully understands all the ramifications of leasehold. I appreciate you are trying to help but on reading the thread so far, you may not be best placed to be explaining it to them. 

JackSprout

Absolutely 

Keswick1uk

I work in a specific area of advice. Spend a lot of time putting people right who have listened to "their mate down the pub". Please get these people to take advice from the right person who understands all ramifications and can interpret the paperwork correctly. Or do buy yourself personal indemnity insurance!

AdrianC

JackSprout said:

And another one, this time with shared ownership, school friend of my wife's, leasehold knew nothing about it until I asked her! She will be bringing the paper work around next month for me to look at. 3 people in 3 weeks normal people that appear to have no idea about leaseholds that they are party to.

There are two words in that post that you do not appear to understand the significance of.
Can you guess what they might be, and why they might be significant?

Because, unless you can, your advice to this friend is going to be worse than useless.

JackSprout

Not really go on..

Grumpy_chap

The OP seems to be doing a lot of worrying on behalf of other people, possibly creating concern where none is necessary by asking everyone they know about the problems of a lease, but not knowing how to then solve the "problem".  Perhaps the local CAB would prefer if the OP did not keep increasing their workload.

AdrianC

Thank you for proving my point so eloquently.

Murphybear

JackSprout said:

So ill explain a bit more what I mean, Jack will be given first refusal as that's the law, however there is no obligation for an explanation to accompany the offer of first refusal. If he is informed then he can make the best decision for himself, if he isn't then he cant can he, and old people need to be given a bit more time and effort don't they. The person buying the Freehold is informed if Jack is also informed and then decides not to buy then that fine, however if in the process of explaining the guy has a heart attack and dies then that would be pretty bad, its a tough call he needs the advice of a solicitor but I doubt he has the means or inclination to engage one, this is a special case obviously I am just hopeful for some consideration.

Grrrrr

No, we don’t. 

My husband says “old” is 20 years older than he is.  He’s now 72.  

It’s not just younger people who have good degrees.  My degree is in one of the more difficult subjects, Physics (with Astronomy thrown in for good measure).  Not from Oxbridge I’m afraid but the University of London.  Mind you, as I’m only 68 I don’t consider myself “old” or “vulnerable”.

boothuk

JackSprout said:

So went to a party last night and got chatting to a couple and this whole subject came up, they had a similar view to me, but guess what they too have an investment flat, its has a lease hold, also 99 years which they bought with the flat 20 years ago, and guess what they weren’t planning on doing an extension on the lease, in fact new nothing about that side of things, again not informed!

One can only assume they weren't 32 years old with higher education?

Jude57

I fully support people learning more about and fully understanding what affects the largest financial commitment most of us will ever make but I agree with previous posters that ' the bloke down the pub' isn't the right person to help with that. Solicitors/legal executives study and train for years to understand the intricacies of, among other things, leases. Online conveyancers, not so much IMHO. 

Finally, I do hope the OP isn't in the north east of England. Tyneside flat leases, peculiar to the area, would make their head spin!