We’d like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum.
This is to keep it a safe and useful space for MoneySaving discussions. Threads that are – or become – political in nature may be removed in line with the Forum’s rules. Thank you for your understanding.
PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING: Hello Forumites! In order to help keep the Forum a useful, safe and friendly place for our users, discussions around non-MoneySaving matters are not permitted per the Forum rules. While we understand that mentioning house prices may sometimes be relevant to a user's specific MoneySaving situation, we ask that you please avoid veering into broad, general debates about the market, the economy and politics, as these can unfortunately lead to abusive or hateful behaviour. Threads that are found to have derailed into wider discussions may be removed. Users who repeatedly disregard this may have their Forum account banned. Please also avoid posting personally identifiable information, including links to your own online property listing which may reveal your address. Thank you for your understanding.
📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!
Freehold question, a bit complicated
JCR
Posts: 161 Forumite
Hi, I've posted on this matter before, but there have been further developments which I would appreciate some advice on.
We were offered the freehold of a building which contains at the moment, two flats and a maisonette. The offer was for £1000, which our solicitor said was a very good deal. The current freeholder lives in Spain and is getting on and said he just wanted to get rid of the responsibility. The matter has been dragging on since last September and our solicitors have been waiting for confirmation from his solicitors that an offer was made to the other leaseholders of the flats. To my knowledge the one leaseholder has the flat on the market and has not been a leaseholder for two years, the other has just sold their maisonette and the new leaseholder is looking for permission to turn the maisonette into two flats.
Our solicitor has been reticent to chase the freeholder's solicitor in case he turns round and says that the freeholder is offering the freehold at too low a price and he does not want to jeopardise the deal.
We have spoken to the freeholder in Spain and he seems content to have the matter proceed. The question I have is can the freeholder up the price, even though it has been offered at £1000 and we have now incurred costs from both sets of solicitors and two, if the new leaseholder of the maisonette wants to make it into two flats presumably he will need two new leases and that may persuade the freeholder to hold onto the lease (which is of course his right) and benefit from this.
The new leaseholder of the maisonette contacted our solicitor about requesting to turn into two flats and we haven't even got the lease yet!!
Maybe Doozergirl :rolleyes: can shed a bit of light on this for me.
Thanks
We were offered the freehold of a building which contains at the moment, two flats and a maisonette. The offer was for £1000, which our solicitor said was a very good deal. The current freeholder lives in Spain and is getting on and said he just wanted to get rid of the responsibility. The matter has been dragging on since last September and our solicitors have been waiting for confirmation from his solicitors that an offer was made to the other leaseholders of the flats. To my knowledge the one leaseholder has the flat on the market and has not been a leaseholder for two years, the other has just sold their maisonette and the new leaseholder is looking for permission to turn the maisonette into two flats.
Our solicitor has been reticent to chase the freeholder's solicitor in case he turns round and says that the freeholder is offering the freehold at too low a price and he does not want to jeopardise the deal.
We have spoken to the freeholder in Spain and he seems content to have the matter proceed. The question I have is can the freeholder up the price, even though it has been offered at £1000 and we have now incurred costs from both sets of solicitors and two, if the new leaseholder of the maisonette wants to make it into two flats presumably he will need two new leases and that may persuade the freeholder to hold onto the lease (which is of course his right) and benefit from this.
The new leaseholder of the maisonette contacted our solicitor about requesting to turn into two flats and we haven't even got the lease yet!!
Maybe Doozergirl :rolleyes: can shed a bit of light on this for me.
Thanks
0
Comments
-
Yes the freeholder can up the price. Regular conveyancing law applies - nothing is binding until contracts are signed. You know he can't sell the freehold without first offering it to the leaseholders, I don't think it matters that they haven't owned the flats for two years - they can still be offered the freehold, it's only where the leaseholders want to drive a deal that the two year thing comes into play - and even that's only if the freeholder is reticent to sell.
You're stuck between a rock and a hard place. The longer you leave this, the more likely the new leaseholder is to make a move. Because a new lease would need to be issued for a new flat and the freeholder is entitled to part of the uplift in value, it would perhaps be in their own interests to purchase the freehold themselves, especially at that price. It depends on lease lengths as to the current value but even flats with new leases, I'd grab the opportunity to own share of freehold for the sum of £333.33 plus legals
The one trying to sell may well not be interested at any price.
The freeholder cannot sell to you for any less than he has offered it to the leaseholders for.
It seems that your solicitor is only delaying judgement day - will he or won't he sell to you? You have no control whatsoever over this. I'd just go for it, full on and work out what the sensible value is for the freehold in case you want to offer higher. Maybe you are lucky, if not, you can at least move on.Everything that is supposed to be in heaven is already here on earth.
0 -
Thanks Doozergirl - looks as if our "deal of the century" as our solicitor put it, is going to crumble to dust.0
-
Wouldn't worry about it shouldn't imagine your going to get rich any time soon by owning the freehold.0
-
Wouldn't worry about it shouldn't imagine your going to get rich any time soon by owning the freehold.
When I'm 70, I *might* have four nice little lease extensions to look forward to :rolleyes:
Or my kids might be grateful. Maybe.
Cost nothing anyway - when we sold off the flats they didn't want share of freehold so we kept it Then they dumped us to take the Right to Manage (share of freehold anyone?) and now they actually pay a professional managing agent a nice fat service charge. There are some stupid people out there, maybe the OP will be lucky!
Which reminds me - they owe us £400!Everything that is supposed to be in heaven is already here on earth.
0 -
Doozergirl wrote: »You know he can't sell the freehold without first offering it to the leaseholders, I don't think it matters that they haven't owned the flats for two years - they can still be offered the freehold, it's only where the leaseholders want to drive a deal that the two year thing comes into play - and even that's only if the freeholder is reticent to sell.
I don't intend to take this off topic, nor to sound utterly ignorant...but!
How can someone be a leaseholder but *not* own the place? I thought as a leaseholder you are leasing from the freeholder, whether that be yourself as the freeholder or someone else...but you have to own the place to own the lease, don't you?
Sorry to be blonde...
KiKi' <-- See that? It's called an apostrophe. It does not mean "hey, look out, here comes an S".0 -
I don't intend to take this off topic, nor to sound utterly ignorant...but!
How can someone be a leaseholder but *not* own the place? I thought as a leaseholder you are leasing from the freeholder, whether that be yourself as the freeholder or someone else...but you have to own the place to own the lease, don't you?
Sorry to be blonde...
KiKi
Not *owned* the property for a the minimum two year requirement for forcing the sale of the freehold or a lease extension, not *not owned* iyswim
I read it the same way in the OPs post as you read it in mine, it took me a while to work it out, but I still used the same phrase myself Everything that is supposed to be in heaven is already here on earth.
0 -
Ah. So I am not so blonde after all. That's excellent to know, thank you, as ever, Doozergirl.
You're, like, Queen of Leaseholds, aren't you?
KiKi' <-- See that? It's called an apostrophe. It does not mean "hey, look out, here comes an S".0 -
Ah. So I am not so blonde after all. That's excellent to know, thank you, as ever, Doozergirl.
You're, like, Queen of Leaseholds, aren't you?
KiKi
I'm not sure whether I should take that as a compliment! I'd rather be the queen of something else but I should take what I get, I guess!Everything that is supposed to be in heaven is already here on earth.
0 -
Well, yes. I'm sure we'd all rather be Queen of Hawaii, say. But it's a compliment. You know lots of stuff.
I, on the other hand, am Queen of Chocolate. I probably have the better deal.
OT, sorry...' <-- See that? It's called an apostrophe. It does not mean "hey, look out, here comes an S".0 -
s today 
This discussion has been closed.
Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply
Categories
- All Categories
- 352.4K Banking & Borrowing
- 253.7K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 454.4K Spending & Discounts
- 245.5K Work, Benefits & Business
- 601.3K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 177.6K Life & Family
- 259.3K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 16K Discuss & Feedback
- 37.7K Read-Only Boards