Leasehold Questions

keithmdw

We are just looking to buy our first property, and hopefully will be viewing our favourite at the weekend.

The property is an appartment and so is leasehold.

I don't know a massive amount about leasehold, but have managed to find out the ground rent and service charge rates as well as the lease time remaining.

Is there anything else that I should be asking?

What are the usual arrangements with leasehold properties with regards to the actual building? One thing we may want to do is have air conditioning fitted - would we need the building owners permission to drill a hole in the exterior wall and hang an air-con unit on it (proffesionally fitted) or would this vary from lease to lease and be documented somewhere?

Thanks

cattie

I think you'll find that you need the landlords permision for this. Also if the flat is in a conservation area you will have to seek permision from the local authority too. Although leases do vary from property to property, the majority of leases require you to seek the permision of the landlord before making any kind of alterations. It is quite usual for a lease to stipulate that you seek permision from the landlord before decorating the interior of a property, though very unusual for anybody to actually do this. It is also usual for the lease to stipulate that carpets of good quality be used for the floorcoverings (to restrict noise impact to downstairs neighbours). I'm pointing these things out in case you know nothing of leaseholds & then wonder if the terms of any leasehold property you may buy is particularly restrictive. Your solicitor will look over any lease & point out terms & restrictions to be aware of.

If this is the flat for you then I hope the sale goes through smoothly.

bunking_off

What the service charge covers? E.g. little things like window cleaning, but big things like insurance. The arrangement in the flat that I used to live in was that the freehold was owned by a 3rd party, but the maintenance etc was done by a management company jointly owned by the leaseholders. It was this company that bought the buildings (not contents) insurance. When the freeholder sold it to another party which just happened to own an insurance brokers, they were able to insist that we insured through them....you can guess what happened to the price.

If the arrangements are like this, it's well worth getting a set of accounts for the management company. What are their reserves? What major works - reroofing, repainting, resurfacing the tarmac - are due in the next few years. You need to have a clear view what liabilities you're exposing yourself to.

keithmdw

The property we are interested in has a 999 year lease on it.

Knowing very little aboue lease hold, does this mean that we are legally entitled to reside there for the next 999 years and would only have to move if we wanted to?

Also, if we wanted to sell at any point would we have to get anyones permission, or are we just selling the lease as we choose and it's none of the freeholders concern?

Sorry, some of these must seem very basic, but as an FTB with no knowledge of these things they are not simple to me.

tik33

I would agree with everything that has been said above. Your solicitor will be the best person to deal with all these questions - but leases aren't that difficult to read - so see if you can get a copy of the leasehold and read it before you start paying money on solicitors, valuers and the rest of the mob. You might be able to pick something out that doesn't seem quite right. On the whole, though, if you are buying a flat on the open market, it would be extremely unlikely that a lease would be very restrictive, otherwise the vendors would have to lower the price to reflect that. A 999 lease is much longer than some of the standard leases (125 years) and it is called a 'virtual freehold', you are completely free to sell or rent out your property without telling the freeholder. Technically, as people have pointed out, you would have to tell them of any alterations you plan to make, but in practice, this is often ignored. You should try and find out who your freeholder is and you don't mention how many other flats there are in the block. Is this a new build property? In some circumstances, you are able to buy the freehold, giving you more control over your own building (ie in control of the service charge). Hope that helps.

keithmdw

It's a block of 6 appartments on 3 floors (Ground, 1st, 2nd). There are more than one block, but in the particular block we are looking at, the empty property is the only one and is top floor.

They are 2 years old so would I assume still count as new.

loopyloo_4

It;s worth doing some research on who the management company are too. This site is great and may have some of the questions you have already answered on there regarding structural changes.

http://www.freepgs.com/equityforum/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?board=equitytalk