Leasehold to freehold advice

sofie2007

I’m about to sell my 50% shared ownership house. The lease only has 63 years left on it and I’ve been quoted 40k to extend it. I do have the option of a simultaneous staircase sale where I purchase the other 50% at the same time as selling, and the property then becomes freehold. 

Does anyone know if whoever then buys the house will still have to pay the service charges, and at the same rate? I assume they would maybe change to something like an estate management charge. 

I currently pay £91 a month service charge for the housing association to trim the bushes out the front once a year!

user1977

The bushes don't care about what sort of tenure you have, so yes. 

gm0

Both will still exist.  Freehold interest (now 100%) and Lease (now extended in term).  Both conveyanced to your buyer. 

Obligations on the lease will continue for the lease term. Rights, constraints, responsibilities.  Including payments to communal as now.  

A future owner may team up with other house freeholder also leaseholders on the estate to attempt to address the organisation and value achieved currently.  If leaving - not your circus.   The management fee to collect (and chase) the money and account for it - may be significantly higher than the money the gardener gets to cut the bushes.  Somebody needs to do it.  And they get paid.  

The law around this stuff is quite complicated.  

Most estate setups are designed more about developer running away once all plots sold - than owners thinking its a good value mechanism for doing the common bits.  

Depends on the site. Depends on the common bits. And the number of units.

JM68

A 63 year lease will probably be very difficult for a buyer to get a mortgage on. Is the £40k quote for a statutory lease extension, with no ground rent and no new lease conditions? Have you negotiated that figure and taken professional advice from a valuer, or is it just want the freeholder suggested? This may all make a big difference to what the best thing is to do and ensure you pay fair value in doing it.