Buying a leasehold flat has been the single worst experience of my life

Section62

somerandomusername said:

ExEstateAgent said:

You can buy / sell a leasehold within a day. Just means paying cash and not worrying about the various checks/surveys. 

I understand why the checks are important for me, that's what I'm paying for after all, but it's just infuriating that it all takes so long.

Cheap. Fast. Good.

You can have two.

poseidon1

somerandomusername said:

I started this process in May 2025 when I had an offer accepted on my first flat I tried to buy. After 5 months of forms, waiting for packs and information, enquires, weeks of back and fourth with very little progress being made, I dropped the purchase. All because the seller didn't want to pay his own fee of a deed of variation. He wanted me to pay it or he would cancel the sale. 

Then I had another offer accepted in October on another flat, again I had to submit all the documents, forms etc and now the enquires have started, 9 to be exact. After nearly 2 weeks, the 9 questions came back and only 3 satisfied my solicitor, so she's sent them back asking for more information / clarification. 

And what makes this worse is the seller has gone on holiday for 3 months. Apparently he has signed everything and collated all the docs in advance and given them to his solicitor and I've been assured if need be the seller is easily contactable while on holiday. 

I have this dark feeling that this isn't going to go through before he gets back, I can just sense it in my bones. I have a feeling the seller is not going to want to be replying to emails and dealing with management company while on holiday. 

I swear to god I cannot believe the process of buying a leasehold is this archaic, we're in 2026 for Christ sake why isn't all this information online for the seller to just access? 

If this one falls through as well I will just rent for another 10 years and save up to buy a freehold house because I am never going through this crap ever again. I never imagined that buying a flat would involve so much legal crap.

It's insanity that it takes so long to buy a leasehold. To put this into perspective, In town within 4 months I've seen on old clothing store close down, exchange hands and reopened as a laser eye clinic. So they can do all that faster than I can buy a flat... So pathetic. It should take no more than a month to buy a flat realistically, and 2 weeks for a freehold.

Sounds to me you have been looking to buy a purpose built flat in blocks burdened with an intermediate management company and no doubt a separate Freeholder. So a number of different moving parts for your solicitor to navigate and  liase with, in addition to the  usual local authority searches.

In my case I would not touch such flats with a bargepole.

I live in a large house converted into flats together with the handful of leaseholders who collectively own and control the Freehold holding company. There is no intermediate management company , we handle all building admin ourselves as well as myself dealing with the minimal Companies House annual compliance.

When the last flat was sold in 2021, I in my personal capacity as one of the directors of the company, handled all the buyer's solicitor enquires related to the company, buildings insurance, past substantive building renovations and service charges ( no ground rent, we eliminated it). I turned around those enquiries within 1 week, to the delight of the vendor of the flat.

I am planning this year  to sell and move on ( to a larger flat ), but with the search parameters being the flat  must again be a conversion similarly owned and  run on the same basis as my present home. 

If you were prepared to consider a freehold house conversion operated by the leasehold/freeholders on a similar basis, you could find fewer obstacles in achieving a faster buying process?

However, I accept that such properties tend to come at a bit of premium compared to purpose built managed blocks, so that is one of  the trade offs in looking at that alternative.

artyboy

I don't know what the DoV was for on your first aborted purchase, but when we bought a flat last year, we just sucked it up, sometimes you have to be pragmatic in order to force things through, and accept that there will be extra costs to cover. 

somerandomusername

poseidon1 said:

somerandomusername said:

I started this process in May 2025 when I had an offer accepted on my first flat I tried to buy. After 5 months of forms, waiting for packs and information, enquires, weeks of back and fourth with very little progress being made, I dropped the purchase. All because the seller didn't want to pay his own fee of a deed of variation. He wanted me to pay it or he would cancel the sale. 

Then I had another offer accepted in October on another flat, again I had to submit all the documents, forms etc and now the enquires have started, 9 to be exact. After nearly 2 weeks, the 9 questions came back and only 3 satisfied my solicitor, so she's sent them back asking for more information / clarification. 

And what makes this worse is the seller has gone on holiday for 3 months. Apparently he has signed everything and collated all the docs in advance and given them to his solicitor and I've been assured if need be the seller is easily contactable while on holiday. 

I have this dark feeling that this isn't going to go through before he gets back, I can just sense it in my bones. I have a feeling the seller is not going to want to be replying to emails and dealing with management company while on holiday. 

I swear to god I cannot believe the process of buying a leasehold is this archaic, we're in 2026 for Christ sake why isn't all this information online for the seller to just access? 

If this one falls through as well I will just rent for another 10 years and save up to buy a freehold house because I am never going through this crap ever again. I never imagined that buying a flat would involve so much legal crap.

It's insanity that it takes so long to buy a leasehold. To put this into perspective, In town within 4 months I've seen on old clothing store close down, exchange hands and reopened as a laser eye clinic. So they can do all that faster than I can buy a flat... So pathetic. It should take no more than a month to buy a flat realistically, and 2 weeks for a freehold.

Sounds to me you have been looking to buy a purpose built flat in blocks burdened with an intermediate management company and no doubt a separate Freeholder. So a number of different moving parts for your solicitor to navigate and  liase with, in addition to the  usual local authority searches.

In my case I would not touch such flats with a bargepole.

I live in a large house converted into flats together with the handful of leaseholders who collectively own and control the Freehold holding company. There is no intermediate management company , we handle all building admin ourselves as well as myself dealing with the minimal Companies House annual compliance.

When the last flat was sold in 2021, I in my personal capacity as one of the directors of the company, handled all the buyer's solicitor enquires related to the company, buildings insurance, past substantive building renovations and service charges ( no ground rent, we eliminated it). I turned around those enquiries within 1 week, to the delight of the vendor of the flat.

I am planning this year  to sell and move on ( to a larger flat ), but with the search parameters being the flat  must again be a conversion similarly owned and  run on the same basis as my present home. 

If you were prepared to consider a freehold house conversion operated by the leasehold/freeholders on a similar basis, you could find fewer obstacles in achieving a faster buying process?

However, I accept that such properties tend to come at a bit of premium compared to purpose built managed blocks, so that is one of  the trade offs in looking at that alternative.

Thanks for the reply. The first flat did have too many companies involved, the management company was first port which are a living nightmare, then the freeholder sold the company to some other company which is then managed by some other company it was horrible. 

But this new one is like yours, the tenants own the land and there are directors like you mentioned. So it's just 1 management company and that's it, no freeholders to navigate. 

So I'm hoping these enquires will be answered quickly but like I said the seller is on holiday so I don't know how willing he is going to be to pick up the phone, reply the emails, fill out anything online etc. 

shinytop

Section62 said:

somerandomusername said:

ExEstateAgent said:

You can buy / sell a leasehold within a day. Just means paying cash and not worrying about the various checks/surveys. 

I understand why the checks are important for me, that's what I'm paying for after all, but it's just infuriating that it all takes so long.

Cheap. Fast. Good.

You can have two.

That would be nice. The problem with the current process in E&W is that you don't get any of these. 

Albermarle

Buying a leasehold flat has been the single worst experience of my life

I can pretty much guarantee that in your life you will have worse things happen to you.

EssexHebridean

You're being wholly unrealistic, is the first issue. As others have said, educate yourself around the realistic timescales and adjust your expectations accordingly.  You've already learned that FirstPort are a nightmare, which is a excellent bit of knowledge at this stage. The "legal crap" is precisely the stuff that means you aren't at risk of ending up with a property that turns out to be effectively unsellable -  meaning you lose out financially in a big way. In my world that's a good thing! 

That said, your plan to continue to rent and save to buy freehold is probably better for you anyway - if you're getting frustrated by the issues with leasehold properties now, just wait and see how frustrating it is to live in one! 

penners324

My leasehold flat to buy took 3 months, to sell took 5 months.

Fortunately I'd forked out for the deed of variation a couple of years prior to selling g.

Im the OPs case, his vendor was being an idiot. They're unlikely to be able to sell to anyone who needs a mortgage without the deed of variation 

penners324

Conveyancing does take a ludicrously long time in this country.

Other countries are usually quicker.

The whole government drive to get houses built quicker, would be better off resolving Conveyancing first before throwing away the planning laws

somerandomusername

penners324 said:

Conveyancing does take a ludicrously long time in this country.

Other countries are usually quicker.

The whole government drive to get houses built quicker, would be better off resolving Conveyancing first before throwing away the planning laws

Exactly, I'm not saying it should take 1 month based on how things are now. I'm saying the entire process needs an overhaul and made efficient so it doesn't take much longer than a month to get all the information required.