Compton group

Ste9758

Ні,

Just wondering if anybody has experience of obtaining permission from Compton for alterations.

Around 3 years ago Compton bought the leasehold to our 3 bed semi and since then have used every opportunity to charge admin fees and try to make as much money out of us as they can which is clearly their business model.

We are currently in the process of starting a rear extension to the kitchen. We have planning permission granted from the council and have registered with the council for building regs inspections etc at the relevant stages of the build.

I contacted Compton to enquire about how we obtain their permission and they asked for £100 to be sent as an admin fee to begin the process before they would discuss it further but the basis is that we need to send all our plans and building regs drawings etc to them for their in house structural engineer to assess. They will then charge us a fee for their structural engineers report and permission letter.

Has anybody any experience of how much they are likely to extort us for or any loop holes or legislation we could use to swerve them such as the lease hold reform act clause we use to be able to pick our own home insurance.

Thanks for any info

eddddy

One way of avoiding the whole issue of Admin Fees would be by buying the freehold of your house.

But if your freeholder doesn't cooperate, that could take 6 to 18 months.




But if you don't buy the freehold, perhaps there are 2 areas to be aware of:

• 1) Administration fees for consent must be reasonable - Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002

• 2) Unreasonably withholding consent for alterations / improvements - section 19(2) of the Landlord & Tenant Act 1927

So in relation to point 1...

• Is it reasonable that a structural engineer needs to look at the plans - or is that unnecessary?

• What is a reasonable amount of time that the structural engineer needs to look at the plans?

• Is the hourly rate you're being charged for the structural engineer reasonable?

etc, etc.

i.e. the freeholder should only really be covering their costs - not making a profit.

You can ask for a breakdown of any fees they request.



In relation to point 2...

If the freeholder makes unreasonable requests, or imposes unreasonable conditions - that can be considered to be unreasonably withholding consent. For example...

• Saying that you must provide irrelevant or unnecessary documents before they'll grant consent

• Saying that you must use specific builders to build the extension

 

Ste9758

Thanks a lot for your reply, I have contacted Compton to ask about buying the freehold. They don’t actually own the freehold they only own the leasehold.

The breakdown is, historically the land belonged to a large farming estate owned by a Duke. They leased an area of the land to a local builder in the 40s to build houses on. The builder then built houses and divided his portion into plots and issued under leases to each house. 

Around 3 years ago the daughter of the original builder sold the lease that all the houses are built on to Compton meaning we now have an under lease to Compton but Compton still have a head lease to the original estate. 

Compton will sell us the leasehold for our plot including all fees for £800. In effect removing Compton as the middle man and releasing us from all the clauses in the under lease which Compton hold us to with regards admin fees, threats of debt collectors every time they request the ground rent, house insurance and alterations permissions etc.

We would still not own the freehold though, we would be bound by the head lease with the original estate which to be honest is no issue and pretty generic having read it. The terms are that we can’t alter block or divert the sewer which actually runs along the middle of the street, we must not build on the footpath at the back of the garden and there must be a dwelling built from brick or stone on the plot. All of which we have no issue with now or going forward.

Compton still hold the lease to all the other houses on the original portion of land so are still responsible for the ground rent to the original estate and have said as conditions of our purchase they have built into the £800 them covering any portion of ground rent going forward so we would not pay any ground rent to the head lease. 

BonaDea

Frankly, £800 to be free of them sounds like a bargain.  I'd take it.

eddddy

Ste9758 said:

Thanks a lot for your reply, I have contacted Compton to ask about buying the freehold. They don’t actually own the freehold they only own the leasehold.

<snip>

You can probably still buy the freehold.

(If Compton didn't tell you this, it may be because it's a worse deal for them - so they don't want you to know.)

In simple terms, you serve notice on the freeholder and Compton (as defined in the leasehold reform act 1967), and negotiate a price. It's then for the freeholder and Compton to agree how the money is split (but Compton will probably get much less than £800).

But you probably need to budget for legal and professional fees - which might add a couple of thousand to your costs.

Ultimately, you will end up owning the freehold, and the head lease will no longer exist.


Some info: https://www.lease-advice.org/advice-guide/houses-qualification-valuation/