Buying freehold from E&M management

Savingnewbie22

Hi everyone,

We currently have a 800 year leasehold costing £5/year, and E&M who manage the freehold have offered for us to purchase it for £840. I realise financially that wouldn't make much sense, however I am considering it, as if we do move having a freehold property would be more desirable.

They say the £840 includes the land registry fee and they processing charges.

I just have two questions, if anyone has been through this with E&M:

1) They say their standard practice when dealing with these transactions is not to merge freehold and leasehold titles, and they can't arrange this. They suggest seeking legal advice at our own expense to do this - what does this mean? We would end up owning the freehold but still have a leasehold? Is that normal? We have a mortgage so I wonder if it's related to that. Is it tricky to then merge titles?

2) They say we might want to appoint our own solicitor for the freehold purchase - is this generally needed?

Many thanks,
Ben

eddddy

Savingnewbie22 said:

1) They say their standard practice when dealing with these transactions is not to merge freehold and leasehold titles, and they can't arrange this. They suggest seeking legal advice at our own expense to do this - what does this mean? We would end up owning the freehold but still have a leasehold? Is that normal? We have a mortgage so I wonder if it's related to that. Is it tricky to then merge titles?

Merging the titles is extra legal work (so extra legal fees).

It seems that their solicitor/legal team isn't interested in doing the extra work. So if you want that done, you'll have to find your own solicitor to do that (and pay their fees).

But you're correct that merging titles will be complicated because of your mortgage. Currently, you have a mortgage on the leasehold property, and you'll want that replaced by a mortgage on the freehold property.

You'd have to ask your mortgage lender about what process they'd want you to follow - it might include a new valuation, etc. And more fees.

Savingnewbie22 said:

2) They say we might want to appoint our own solicitor for the freehold purchase - is this generally needed?

Perhaps the type of thing to look out for is... the freeholder puts 'nasty' and unnecessary terms in the contract, or 'nasty' and unnecessary covenants in the freehold title.

A solicitor could alert you to that kind of thing.

Savingnewbie22

Many thanks for your response and advice.