Freeholder consent

packetlos

Hello knowledgable folks,

Need your opinion on this please!

I have my leasehold semi-detected house up for sale at the moment, its a long term lease with 916 or so years left and peppercorn annual ground rent. I have received some questions from a potential purchaser about the leasehold so I approached the freeholder, they didn't help with the questions but not so helpfully -they informed me that they had no notification from my conveyancer in 2017 that a change of ownership had occurred. That is now sorted and they now have my details but they are now telling me that since the previous owners did not get consent from the freeholder to put an extension up in 2012 I now need to pay a fee of £1000 to obtain consent on an extension that has been up nearly a decade!

So as I see it, two issues:

1. Lack of freeholder consent for extension work that was missed by the vendors solicitor and my conveyancer in 2017, not surprisingly my conveyancer was 'struck off' by an intervention by the CLC in 2018! Any routes of recourse for this?

2. How can the land owner justify a £1000 consent fee for something that has been standing nearly 10 years? Its not like they can run any plans past a surveyor? Surely its a case of knocking up a letter from a word template!?!

Thanks in advance!

canaldumidi

1.

https://www.clc-uk.org/consumers/compensation/

2.

I imagine they will instruct a surveyor to inspect and prepare a report for them. Then their internal review process. The template letter is just the final stage.

eddddy

packetlos said:

1. Lack of freeholder consent for extension work that was missed by the vendors solicitor and my conveyancer in 2017, not surprisingly my conveyancer was 'struck off' by an intervention by the CLC in 2018! Any routes of recourse for this?

Your conveyancer didn't visit the property, so they wouldn't know it had an extension.  So it's you who should have checked the lease plan against the property to see if they matched - and told your solicitor if they didn't.

(Conveyancers often specifically tell you to check the lease plan.)


BUT... when you bought, you should have got a "TA7 Leaseholder Information Form" from the seller. It includes the question:

9.1 Is the seller aware of any alterations having been made to the property since the lease was originally granted? 

If the seller gave a misleading answer - in theory you could claim damages from them, if you can prove they were aware of the alterations.

packetlos said:

2. How can the land owner justify a £1000 consent fee for something that has been standing nearly 10 years? Its not like they can run any plans past a surveyor? Surely its a case of knocking up a letter from a word template!?!

Is it just an Admin/Consent fee - or do they mention a 'premium'? 

If it's just an Admin/Consent fee - then it should be 'reasonable' - i.e. it should cover the freeholder's costs (including staff time). The freeholder shouldn't be making a profit from it.

But in simple terms, a 'premium' might be payable if something has been done which is forbidden by the lease. And the freeholder can make a 'profit' on that.