Should I buy my Freehold?

boojiboy16

Should I buy my leasehold? I've been offered the opportunity to buy my freehold for £640 total cost. I'm in my 80s, the property is fully paid for and will be inherited by my two sons. I currently pay £6 a year so it seems bad maths to accept the offer and also I'm feeling the offer may have been prompted by the leashold reforms in 2022. I struggle to understand Government acts documents but this one seems to favour the house owner.

diego_94

If you can afford it you should definitely purchase it, will give you security and will help at the time when it comes to sell whenever that may be

hazyjo

How many years are left on the lease?

NameUnavailable

At that price buying the freehold is a no brainer! A lease is essentially a long term rental agreement - for £640 you are getting the actual property and land!!

It will benefit your sons in the future as the value will almost certainly be greater and easier to sell. Or you could find yourself in a position in a few years where you want to/need to move to other accommodation and again, it will be easier to sell.

SensibleSarah

I have an old-style leasehold house (950 ish years left, freeholder is local authority, peppercorn ground rent) and they are trying to sell me the freehold for significantly more than yours is on offer for - cash-strapped local council and all. I'll probably buy mine at some point but don't have the money spare at the moment to pay for the freehold, their legal costs and mine. Based on the offer from my freeholder, costs will be around £3k-£4k all in. 

I'll be buying it mainly with selling in mind - i.e. while it doesn't really seem to affect the value of properties at all in my area (leasehold house not that uncommon in my location and my street seems to be about half and half - similar sale prices regardless), it will make it more attractive to a wider pool of buyers if freehold. 

I know that you're not planning on moving, but if you can afford it, I'd buy yours if I were in the same position purely to make things simpler when managing the estate. 

theoretica

It isn't great maths for you personally to buy - but seems like it could be good for your sons for you to have bought.  Do it as a present for them/ask them?

eddddy

Assuming it's a 900+ year lease, owning the freehold will probably make very little difference to the property's value or saleability.

Perhaps the most important thing to look at is...

• The covenants (or rules) that exist in your lease at the moment
• The covenants (or rules) that would be included in the freehold title

Examples of covenants that might exist in the lease at the moment include:

• No structural alterations to the building without consent (and paying a fee)
• No extensions to the building
• No running a business from the property
• You must maintain garden walls

So which of those covenants does the freeholder intend to include in the freehold title? Or if the freeholder is a bit dodgy, what new covenants will the freeholder add?


Also, make sure that there are no 'intermediate leases' between your lease and the freehold.

... And no dodgy terms in the contract.


You might want to instruct a specialist 'freehold purchase' solicitor to check on all that type of stuff. In maybe 99.9% of cases there are no problems - but yours could be one of the 0.1% of bad cases.