Selling my Maisonette - NO Maintenance agreement

grahamwild

I'm in the pros of selling my ground floor maisonette built in 1952 for which I live in for 30 years and I pay peppercorn rent of £8 per year and NO maintenance charges with a nine hundred year lease. 
 
The person who's buying solicitor has informed them there is no clarity as to who is responsible for the foundations, roof space etc  

I have read the very old  faded lease agreement, I have and I can't find any such agreement either. Some parts of the lease agreement has been crossed out and signed with faded signature. Something in the back of my mind my original solicitor who was involved in purchasing then might have made some sort of provision. I cant contact them now as I believed he has passed away some time.

This discovery is now threatening the sale,

Slithery

Did you have a question?

grahamwild

Slithery said:

Did you have a question?

What happens with NO legal agreement with the lack of one and who is responsible for the roof, upstairs or both?

user1977

What advice is your solicitor providing?

grahamwild

user1977 said:

What advice is your solicitor providing?

None yet, We have just replied to their issue and now awaiting outcome.

user1977

grahamwild said:

user1977 said:

What advice is your solicitor providing?

None yet, We have just replied to their response and now awaiting outcome.

Well, I would suggest you carry on waiting then. We can't see your lease from here so can't give you much advice on its terms.

I suppose from a practical point of view, you can tell everyone what's actually happened in relation to any common repairs during your ownership.

grahamwild

user1977 said:

grahamwild said:

user1977 said:

What advice is your solicitor providing?

None yet, We have just replied to their response and now awaiting outcome.

Well, I would suggest you carry on waiting then. We can't see your lease from here so can't give you much advice on its terms.

I suppose from a practical point of view, you can tell everyone what's actually happened in relation to any common repairs during your ownership.

The only repair done 10 years ago was with previous owner upstairs was splitting the cost of  minor repairs to some  guttering boards.

NameUnavailable

Who is the freeholder? They are ultimately responsible and I would expect that in the absence of anything to say otherwise that costs would be shared 50/50 between the leaseholders.

But yes your solicitors job is to sort the details out, which might need an amendment to the lease for clarity.

Peppercorn rent is literally a peppercorn. If you pay £8 pa that isn't peppercorn. If you failed to pay the ground rent the freeholder could still come after you (which they don't for peppercorns!).

grahamwild

NameUnavailable said:

Who is the freeholder? They are ultimately responsible and I would expect that in the absence of anything to say otherwise that costs would be shared 50/50 between the leaseholders.

But yes your solicitors job is to sort the details out, which might need an amendment to the lease for clarity.

Peppercorn rent is literally a peppercorn. If you pay £8 pa that isn't peppercorn. If you failed to pay the ground rent the freeholder could still come after you (which they don't for peppercorns!).

Ground rent has always been paid. and would such admendment need agreement with upstairs? 

NameUnavailable

grahamwild said:

NameUnavailable said:

Who is the freeholder? They are ultimately responsible and I would expect that in the absence of anything to say otherwise that costs would be shared 50/50 between the leaseholders.

But yes your solicitors job is to sort the details out, which might need an amendment to the lease for clarity.

Peppercorn rent is literally a peppercorn. If you pay £8 pa that isn't peppercorn. If you failed to pay the ground rent the freeholder could still come after you (which they don't for peppercorns!).

Ground rent has always been paid. and would such admendment need agreement with upstairs? 

Yes, agreement of the freeholder and neighbour - but if it's causing problems with selling the property the neighbour should be cooperative and also it will protect the freeholder to set out more clearly what the maintenance obligations are.

AlexMac

Almost everything related to tenure and leases is fixable, usually at cost in legal fees and sometimes taking a bit of time.

For example our kids discovered the 100+ year of house they were buying was leasehold, with no real lease other than on the field that the street was created on in the early 20th Century.  Their solicitor said "walk away".   They said; "we love it- sort it". So she (the solicitor) did; and acquired the freehold from the ancient Estate who'd owned it so they now have a shiny, watertight freehold title.  Cost a couple of grand and two month, so they sold their place so as not to lose their sale and moved into a holiday let so the kids could start in their new school 100 miles from the last one!  

So tell your brief to sort it pronto; regrettably, it's your problem not the buyer's, so I guess they will demand that  cost will be down to you.  Dunno if your lawyer can rig up an interim solution of some kind of supplement to the lease of a botch job with an indemnity to protect the new owner, but that's down to the two solicitors.  If I was the buyer I'd want it sorted right so I wasn't in the same position when I sold on. Let's hope you chose a competent conveyancing solicitor to protect your interetsts?

You don't say who the freeholder is, whether its a 2-unit block or bigger, or how you get on with the other leaseholder (I guess, amicably) or if it's a shared freehold, but common sense dictates that structural problems (roof, damp, external decor...) be a shared liability and cost, as seems to have been the case with the guttering.  A decent lease would spell this out in precise detail, including any differential % split; as it should have done when you bought.

Your buyer's lawyer might even suggest a new lease, which will presumably require co-operation from the freeholder (who?) and other leasehold owner(s)... but that's down to them.

Good luck; house buying and selling is stressful enough without this extra hassle, but at worst, and even if this sale does fall through (and hopefully it won't), you will sell again fast in the current market and when the glitch is sorted.