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

p00hsticks

somerandomusername said:

I'm pretty sure I could hire a company to literally build a house from scratch faster than it takes to buy a leasehold flat. 

I'm pretty sure you couldn't ......

fullyrendered

It has taken me just as long to read all the threads this poster has started about buying a leasehold flat!

somerandomusername

fullyrendered said:

It has taken me just as long to read all the threads this poster has started about buying a leasehold flat!

haha ok that was a good one. But seriously...

Emmia

somerandomusername said:

Emmia said:

somerandomusername said:

It's the most horrendous time consuming process ever. You'll spend a month filling out forms, providing your proof of income etc and then spend 6+ months waiting for your solicitor to ask literally 50+ questions. Your mortgage offer will likely expire so you'll have to renew it which means doing a lot of of the forms again.

You'll wait weeks for the management company to send the management pack, but they'll likely forget to include something and make you wait another 2 weeks before they send it out. Then your solicitor will have 15 questions, 9 of which require another form or document from 20 years ago. These documents will take another 2 weeks to arrive. And the kicker is these documents themselves will likely prompt your solicitor to ask another 20 questions. 

Since I've started this process I've counted how many enquires my solicitor has asked and so far we're up to 32 questions. She's just asked another 4 questions today.   

If you insist on buying a flat thinking it's going to be the "12 - 16 weeks" that google says, forget about it. You're looking at an absolute minimum of 24 weeks in my opinion.

I'm pretty sure I could hire a company to literally build a house from scratch faster than it takes to buy a leasehold flat. 

Just don't do it. Save more for a house deposit, even if you have to save for another 5 years. I'm already months into the process so I'm just going to see it through, hopefully I get to exchange contracts before summer. 

But yeah, don't put yourself through what I'm going through it's not worth it. 

Oh and I just want to say my solicitor is not "bad", in fact she's actually too good and is trying to "protect my interests" to the absolute best that is humanly possible, cutting absolutely no corners. Which I do appreciate, but it's also incredibly frustrating at how long it's taking.

So your complaint is at least partially about your solicitor? 

Purchases of any type of property can be long winded and complicated, not just flats 

Partially yes, but it just means she is doing her job properly, which I said I appreciated. But this in turn causes the entire process to move at a snails pace. My issue is more with how long it takes just to buy a flat. 

Yes it's a lot of money but yachts also cost a lot of money, often a lot more than a leasehold flat and they take 1/4 the time to complete than buying a flat... 

If the delay is caused by your solicitor, and you think it's not acceptable you should raise it with them.  

sheramber

What makes you think buying a leasehold house would be any different?
Plenty of threads on here about delays buying houses. 

Emmia

sheramber said:

What makes you think buying a leasehold house would be any different?
Plenty of threads on here about delays buying houses. 

Including those which are freehold and not leasehold.

Brie

p00hsticks said:

somerandomusername said:

I'm pretty sure I could hire a company to literally build a house from scratch faster than it takes to buy a leasehold flat. 

I'm pretty sure you couldn't ......

You can get incredibly nice pre fab houses in Germany that I've been told take about a month to assemble.  Most of that time is prepping the foundation etc.  

kittyb49

i dont understand all the bad comments,

i get it, you wanted to just have a rant about the process 

sometimes a rant is needed  

dinosaur66

i know gardening is a chore for some but i would never buy a leasehold 125 year or less flat in england 

its not yours and until the laws change never will be and you are beholden on management companys not to rip you off.

buy a 1/2 bed freehold house instead and not a new one 

4 months is typical of my expierence of conveyencing in london and south east 

i know in london 95% of everything built is a flat but i would still not buy one 

somerandomusername

dinosaur66 said:

i know gardening is a chore for some but i would never buy a leasehold 125 year or less flat in england 

its not yours and until the laws change never will be and you are beholden on management companys not to rip you off.

buy a 1/2 bed freehold house instead and not a new one 

4 months is typical of my expierence of conveyencing in london and south east 

i know in london 95% of everything built is a flat but i would still not buy one 

Mine is a virtual freehold it's got like 900+ years left on the lease, no ground rent (share of freehold), decent service fees. If I didn't hate where I live now so much I would save for another 5 years and buy a house.

I'm just starting to lose patience because I already sat through 5 months of this with a previous purchase the fell through so now I'm growing anxious as this one is also looking like it's going to take a long time.