Leasehold Purchase Rights.

Mercuryrev

NameUnavailable said:

Mercuryrev said:

eddddy said:

Thanks again for your reply.

Apologies again for my ignorance, why would the freeholders not want to sell? They are currently building coach houses on the same development and selling them freehold, complete with car ports that will be for other house owners. A ground rent of £250 pa isn't exactly a good return, is it? As they are responsible for repairs to the property (albeit unlikely in a 6 year old property) is the hassle worth it?

Also the agents mention "not able to offer the freehold to individual leasehold flat owners on an individual basis" As there is only one 'flat' how can it be anything other than an 'individual owner', we can't exactly enlist the support of other flat owners?

Just on this point, the freeholder is indeed responsible for repairs (usually for parts not demised to you under the lease) but YOU will be responsible for paying for any repairs, which are recovered under the service charge or a demand for major works.

Thanks again.

I appreciate that we would be responsible for paying for the repairs in the same way as if we owned the freehold. However, if we own the freehold, we then have the choice of who does the work, how the work is done, etc. We don't have to pay into a sinking fund that we have no control over and we also don't have to pay a management company to tell us what we already know.

We have just sold a flat, in a small block of 5, where two of the owners managed to buy the freehold. They are both very comfortably off and promptly decided to have the communal areas redecorated at a cost of £1400 to each flat and then doubled the service charge to nearly £3000. This after annoying the previous owners so much that they refused to release a sinking fund built up over 8 years that would've paid for all the necessary works.

Hence we are not fans of having someone else determine what work needs to be done, who does it and how much it costs. We can live with the hassle of arranging such things.

For us, ground rents and service charges are a much bigger nightmare than employing a good solicitor to word an agreement over a couple of parking spaces.

NervyBuyer

Isn't the situation quite simple, irrespective of the future saleability of the property?

- You don't want the problem of unexpected leasehold service charges (very wise)
- You can't buy the freehold of this property (because it's not for sale)

So this property isn't for you. Couldn't you buy one of the other freehold properties you said they are building?

Mercuryrev

NervyBuyer said:

Isn't the situation quite simple, irrespective of the future saleability of the property?

- You don't want the problem of unexpected leasehold service charges (very wise)
- You can't buy the freehold of this property (because it's not for sale)

So this property isn't for you. Couldn't you buy one of the other freehold properties you said they are building?

Thanks for replying.

At the moment I am trying to find out whether the managing agents are being deliberately ambiguous in what they are saying. The estate agents are suggesting I use a solicitor to ask them, which seems daft to me, but there you go. They usually try suggesting something, instead of being honest and up front. Our solicitor is away at the moment, so I'll hopefully speak to them next week.

The new builds aren't as nice as this property, smaller, slightly crammed in and overlooked, with less parking. They are also more expensive by potentially £35k

On the face of it, the property is ideal for us, aside from being leasehold. If we can get the info we want from the vendor, if we can find out if the freehold truly isn't for sale, then we can decide what to do. Our very recent hassles have made us extremely cautious of leasehold. The market is dead in terms of suitable properties coming on the market. Therefore, if we can stand the many frustrations that keep surfacing, we'll hang on in there unless a better place comes up. To add to the fun, we are now back in France for the next 5 to 6 weeks.