Freehold purchase

user1977

Macgirl78 said:

user1977 said:

Macgirl78 said:

NameUnavailable said:

Just for clarity, you own a lease. A lease is essentially a long term rental agreement. You don't own the house, just a right to live there. If you buy the freehold then you will own the house (the bricks and mortar and roof etc.) and the land it occupies. 

So even if we pay off the mortgage we still don’t own the house? 

So buying the freehold would be worth it then?

How long is left on the lease? If it's, say 900 years, then owning the freehold will reassure you that you'll still be able to occupy the house after the year 2922. Otherwise it's likely that all you'll be doing is saving yourself the ground rent. Paying £970 in order to not pay £4 a year isn't really worth it.

But as advised above, read your lease - we're just guessing what it says. Presumably this was explained to you when you bought?

I don’t remember it being explained other than you’ll pay £2 a year to the owner of the land. 

We can’t afford a solicitor, is there a way of getting the term of the lease or working out what is best without getting one involved? Land registry? Bank with whom we have the mortgage? 

You can get a copy of the lease from the Land Registry.

dimbo61

Make sure you go on the Land Registry website .gov as a number of fake websites.
Only costs about £3 !
The mortgage is costing you money each month in Interest so sooner paid off the better.
Is it worth buying the freehold is a decision for you and your other half ?

Macgirl78

Thank you again everyone.