I've lived in my flat for 14 years and never had any contact from the Freeholder

morrisr

What happens when I want to sell it?

martinman3

Your solicitor will get freeholder contact details from the Land Registry or alternatively from the managing agents.

SquatNow

You'll get a large backdated ground rent bill.

It could be as high as a hundred pounds!

bubblesmoney

my post in this thread might interest u

EDITEd later by me: looks like that link wont work anymore as that thread has been deleted (and rightly so). it was a thread about squatting and someone else advertising their website, so i had responded with some extracts from wiki about law changes in 2002 dealing with this issue and protecting land owners. but since th OP in THIS thread has lived there 14y, does this give any extra rights to the tenant as his stay predates the amendments to the act in 2002. amendments didnt have retrospective effect from what i gathered

clutton_2

i believe that ground rent which has not been claimed, can only be back claimed for a maximum of 6 years.

Richard_Webster

I assume that the contact details at the Land Registry are no help.

The ground rent is the least of your worries. You will have to sort it, but an allowance to the buyer equivalent to the amount of reclaimable ground rent deals with that one.

The real problem relates to the fact that the lease will give the freeholder/lessor certain responsibilities, typically insurance and maintenance of the structure. Although you might in practice be organising these yourself or in conjunction with the other lessees, if they decide not to co-operate then the only legal way to make these things get done is to go to the Landlord and request him to carry out his obligation s in the lease. If you wanted to get another lessee to pay for repairs, for instance, then it might be that the only way you could do that would be by asking the landlord to do it and collect a proportion of the cost from that other lessee.

Mortgage lenders require solicitors to look at the theoretical position of what might happen, and if it did, what could be done about it under the lease. If the landlord has disappeared then you would at least have to take out a Flat/Maisonette Indemnity Policy which would pay out if you couldn't get repairs etc done and the flat lost value as a consequence. Not all lenders will accept these policies, which have some limitations. This means you could have problems selling. In the present market with loads of flats out there a buyer might prefer a flat without a legal problem.

brightonman123

check your lease- should have the f/h details (at the time you bought it)..

morrisr

Thanks to everyone for your replies. I do have to pay only up to 6 years backdated or take out an indemnity.

Anyone know what the average cost of buying the freehold might be on a flat worth £125,000 or alternatively extending the lease - rough guess??

Richard_Webster

If selling, you would have to make an allowance for the back ground rent AND take out an indemnity policy as a minimum.

You can only buy the freehold collectively with a majority of the lessees of the flats in the building - you can't buy the freehold of your flat on its own.

If you can't find the freeholder buying the freehold or extending the lease is going to incur above average legal costs because you have to go through extra hoops (special court order) to get round the need to serve to freeholder with the application. Usually you can get the freeholder to negotiate by starting the statutory process for lease extension or collective purchase of the freehold. If you can't find him you have no choice but to go all through the statutory process eventually getting the court/LVT to order the vesting of the freehold/extension of the lease. This could take many months and cost of the order of £3,000 or more in legal costs.