Deed of variation

Lisamords

Hi i Was wondering if anyone could provide any experience they have of waiting for a deed of variance to be done when buying lease hold property (ground rent issue) 

just a rough idea of how long the process took and how long it delayed the sale 

thanks 

NinjaTune

Mine wasn't for ground rent it was for other issues on the lease.

It's difficult to say really as it depends on how responsive the freeholder and their solicitors are.  Another thing is how proactive your and your vendors solicitors are in chasing up the progress.  I was lucky that my vendor did a lot of the legwork in terms of chasing up the HA and had a formed a good relationship with the customer services person.

The DoV probably delayed my sale by at least a month and that was with all parties chasing the progress on a regular basis.

Lisamords

Thank you - my seller is not very pro active - my solicitors chase every 48 hours but getting no where. Thanks I suppose that sets my expectation that I should probs be waiting another month (was originally requested by my sols on 30/4 but her solicitor decided to ignore it until Monday last week). The lease holder has confirmed they will do it so it a case of getting it done but I fear it hasn’t even got to stage of leaseholders solicitors 

thanks for taking time to respond! 

Lisamords

Should say my seller solicitors not every pro active not seller 

NinjaTune

Lisamords said:

Thank you - my seller is not very pro active - my solicitors chase every 48 hours but getting no where. Thanks I suppose that sets my expectation that I should probs be waiting another month (was originally requested by my sols on 30/4 but her solicitor decided to ignore it until Monday last week). The lease holder has confirmed they will do it so it a case of getting it done but I fear it hasn’t even got to stage of leaseholders solicitors 

thanks for taking time to respond! 

You're welcome.

It's incredibly frustrating just waiting around.  Hope you get things resolved soon

Fufu3333

Lisamords said:

Hi i Was wondering if anyone could provide any experience they have of waiting for a deed of variance to be done when buying lease hold property (ground rent issue) 

just a rough idea of how long the process took and how long it delayed the sale 

thanks 

Lisamords can I ask, are you getting a Deed of Variation to cap the ground rent?  Are leaseholders usually quite happy to do this?

Lisamords

Yeah that’s what it’s for - yeah the landlords have confirms they are aware of issue and provided a press release confirming on request they will change it so we know at this point that it can be done (took a month for the press release) but the sellers sols didn’t request the change to actually be made to the lease until last week - she thought the press release would be enough! 

Thanks 

eddddy

Lisamords said:

Yeah that’s what it’s for - yeah the landlords have confirms they are aware of issue and provided a press release confirming on request they will change it so we know at this point that it can be done (took a month for the press release) but the sellers sols didn’t request the change to actually be made to the lease until last week - she thought the press release would be enough! 

Thanks 

You probably need to be more specific about who the landlord/freeholder is, whether the landlord/freeholder has agreed terms with the leaseholder, etc.


It sounds a bit like the "Taylor Wimpey Ground Rent Review Assistance Scheme". If it is that scheme, you'll probably get more helpful answers if you specifically ask people about that scheme.



The general answer to "How long does a deed of variation take" would be... 
- The first step is to get agreement. That might take a day, a week, a month, a year, or it may never happen
- Then it's a case of instructing solicitors and getting the job done (that depends on how quickly people get moving, how busy the solicitors are, etc)

Lisamords

The landlord / freehold have confirmed they will change it and the request has now been out in so now waiting for the change to actually be made 

The property was originally Miller homes however, the leasehold has been sold on since it was built 

thanks 

Lisamords

The land lord is rendall and rittner 

eddddy

Lisamords said:

The landlord / freehold have confirmed they will change it and the request has now been out in so now waiting for the change to actually be made 

The property was originally Miller homes however, the leasehold has been sold on since it was built 

thanks 

Lisamords said:

The land lord is rendall and rittner 

The Lease Variation will probably be a one or two page document prepared by a solicitor, and signed by the landlord and the leaseholder.

I expect the landlord's solicitors have already created a template document.

But I expect Miller Homes will have to pay the Rendall and Rittner compensation for loss of ground rent.


So it's really a case of how quickly Miller Homes authorise the payment - and generally, how quickly Miller Homes and Rendell and Rittner get things moving.


If others have experience of getting a Lease Variation from Miller Homes / Rendell and Rittner - they might be able to give an idea of how fast those companies work.





(And also, I guess that the seller's solicitor and your solicitor will probably want to check the Lease Variation - so it also depends how quickly they get on with things.)