Agent misled and advertised a property as freehold - 3 months later I am finding out it is leasehold

bluelad1927

theonematt said:

MultiFuelBurner said:

This is why you have solicitors to pick up these errors and get everything in order for exchange and completion.

It's annoying but better picked up now that further down the line but as for compensation this is a sad thing that's crept into daily UK life. Something goes wrong where's my compo cheque.

On the contrary, I'm half convinced this didn't just "go wrong" but that the agent likely listed as freehold given the length of the lease to not put off buyers. I could be wrong, but I don't trust estate agents as far as I can throw them, and they keep getting away with bad practices. 

So you're also half unconvinced that what the agent did then

theonematt

bluelad1927 said:

theonematt said:

MultiFuelBurner said:

This is why you have solicitors to pick up these errors and get everything in order for exchange and completion.

It's annoying but better picked up now that further down the line but as for compensation this is a sad thing that's crept into daily UK life. Something goes wrong where's my compo cheque.

On the contrary, I'm half convinced this didn't just "go wrong" but that the agent likely listed as freehold given the length of the lease to not put off buyers. I could be wrong, but I don't trust estate agents as far as I can throw them, and they keep getting away with bad practices. 

So you're also half unconvinced that what the agent did then

Correct. I have no idea. 

eddddy

km1500 said:

I believe most if not all estate agents details specifically say subject to contract.

apart from anything else this means that they have done their best but cannot guarantee everything they say is exactly right they presumably have been told by the vendor.

That's a bit of a misleading statement.

Estate Agents cannot override consumer protection laws with standard disclaimers such as "subject to contract" printed at the bottom of property details.

Just like shops can't override consumer protection laws by printing signs saying "No refunds for faulty goods".


And Estate Agents should not simply accept everything that a vendor tells them - especially if there are reasonable checks they can do, to make sure it's correct.

theartfullodger

Simply spending £3 online you would have known it was leasehold through land registry.  Sort of thing i do regularly, sometimes just out of curiosity.

Why didn't you?

[Deleted User]

I have heard it said that freehold vs leasehold increases value. I am sure it is not a provable fact but in theory it could be relevant. I just purchased the freehold for a 920 year lease, 1130£ including solicitor fees.

user1977

[Deleted User] said:

I have heard it said that freehold vs leasehold increases value. I am sure it is not a provable fact but in theory it could be relevant. I just purchased the freehold for a 920 year lease, 1130£ including solicitor fees.

The freehold for this sort of lease is going to be worth peanuts - as you can see from those figures (most of that would be the legal fees).

RHemmings

user1977 said:

[Deleted User] said:

I have heard it said that freehold vs leasehold increases value. I am sure it is not a provable fact but in theory it could be relevant. I just purchased the freehold for a 920 year lease, 1130£ including solicitor fees.

The freehold for this sort of lease is going to be worth peanuts - as you can see from those figures (most of that would be the legal fees).

If someone owns both the leasehold and the freehold of a single property (as opposed to e.g. a block of flats) can they put them together to make a freehold property? 

lr1277

bluelad1927 said:

Having sold a leasehold property 18 months ago with a similar 900+ yrs,  living with the lease and its £20 per year ground rent were no problem. However, there were added fees (not insignificant), and time consuming issues when it came to selling.

Sorry not answering your question but providing info on some of the pitfalls I found in owning a leasehold flat which was in a purpose built block.
When I sold a leasehold flat about 6 years ago, I had to pay the fees for the management pack and the fees for the freeholder’s solicitor. So a lot more expensive than selling a freehold property.
i don’t know the legal costs should you buy or sell a property where the owner has a share of the freehold.
You might want to investigate if the other owners are looking to buy the freehold from the freeholder and more importantly the cost of buying your share of the freehold. Could be peanuts with such a long lease but could also be an extra cost you can’t afford.
EPC rating: the building’s manager assured me the necessary insulation work had been done but this could not be proved in a reasonable timescale. Essentially the paperwork was filed somewhere at head office and it would take time to retrieve. So when the EPC assessor came to inspect I couldn’t prove there was insulation in my ceiling space so the flat got a much worse EPC rating.

eddddy

RHemmings said:

user1977 said:

[Deleted User] said:

I have heard it said that freehold vs leasehold increases value. I am sure it is not a provable fact but in theory it could be relevant. I just purchased the freehold for a 920 year lease, 1130£ including solicitor fees.

The freehold for this sort of lease is going to be worth peanuts - as you can see from those figures (most of that would be the legal fees).

If someone owns both the leasehold and the freehold of a single property (as opposed to e.g. a block of flats) can they put them together to make a freehold property? 

Yep. You'd probably use a solicitor so there would be legal fees to pay

And very occasionally there might be reasons why it's a bad idea.

Also, if you've bought and mortgaged the leasehold - then later buy the freehold, the mortgage makes it more difficult to merge the titles.

But if you buy both leasehold and freehold at the same time, mortgaging shouldn't be a problem.

user1977

RHemmings said:

user1977 said:

[Deleted User] said:

I have heard it said that freehold vs leasehold increases value. I am sure it is not a provable fact but in theory it could be relevant. I just purchased the freehold for a 920 year lease, 1130£ including solicitor fees.

The freehold for this sort of lease is going to be worth peanuts - as you can see from those figures (most of that would be the legal fees).

If someone owns both the leasehold and the freehold of a single property (as opposed to e.g. a block of flats) can they put them together to make a freehold property? 

You'd already have a freehold property. If you're both landlord and tenant under the lease, it's entirely up to you whether to comply with the obligations you have to yourself...

But yes you're also able to tidy things up on the registers by getting rid of the lease. Best to check though that they both squarely align - sometimes the lease may include rights over other parties' properties which you would want to keep.