Buying a leasehold flat

Based on the examples you quote, I don't think there's any benefit in asking for the forms to be changed.

But perhaps there are things that need further investigation.

leaseholdzzz wrote: »

TA6 - Property Information Form

12.3 Does the property have a central heating system? - They've answered 'No' when it should be 'Yes' as it does have an all electric storage heating system.

Electric storage heating isn't central heating.

("Central Heating" means the heating is done on one central place, and circulated around the property.)

leaseholdzzz wrote: »

TA7 - Leasehold Information Form

1.2 Does the seller pay rent for the property? - They've answered 'No' when it should be 'Yes' as there is ground rent to pay of £125/year

So you know there is ground rent is £125 from reading the lease - so you don't really need the form corrected to say that.

What benefit do you see from having it written on the form?

leaseholdzzz wrote: »

5.5 Does the seller know of any expense (e.g. the cost of redecoration of outside or communal areas not usually incurred annually) likely to be shown in the service charge accounts within the next three years? If Yes, please give details: - They've answered 'No' when they've already told us that there are redecoration works for the building that are planned soon. There's no section 20 notice for it yet.

Again, you know about the redecoration, so there's no real benefit to making the vendor write it on the form.

Although, if they knew about the redecoration and didn't mention it, I guess it's possible that they also know about some other stuff that they haven't mentioned.

leaseholdzzz wrote: »

9.1 Is the seller aware of any alterations having been made to the property since the lease was originally granted? - They've answered 'No' but I think it should be 'Yes' as the seller has ripped up the carpeting (which is required by the lease) and replaced it with wooden flooring recently.

Again, you know about this - so what's the benefit of getting the seller to write it on a form?

However, the wooden floor may be a breach of the lease terms, so you need to investigate that.

leaseholdzzz wrote: »

TA10 - Fittings and Contents Form

4 Carpets - There is no carpeting anywhere in the flat as they've recently replaced it with wooden flooring. But for this question they've marked 'Included' and put "Laminated flooring" under comments. Surely, they should just say that there aren't any carpets?

If the form stays as it is, what bad outcome are you worried about?

If there's no possible bad outcome from leaving the form as it is, why bother asking for it to be changed?



But whilst none of the examples you mention appear to be a problem, I guess it's an indication that the seller hasn't taken great care in filling in the forms.

If you want, I guess you could say that you've spotted a few errors on the forms, so would the seller re-check their answers, just in case there are other errors that you aren't aware of.

I think I would have answered the questions the same as the seller!
Storage heaters are independent heaters so not a central heating system. They don't pay rent on the property only for the land. Redecorating is a normal charge on service charges. Property alterations would be something like structural work not changing floor coverings. By putting no carpets would imply bare floorboards, so ok to comment that there is laminate floor.

What I would ask, is what the charges are when you come to sell the property. It can be 1% of the purchase price and 1% ov the selling price, sometimes higher. I have just sold my parent's leasehold flat and had to pay 0.5% of the sale price for every year they have been there!

Have you been sent a copy of the lease yet as there are plenty of other things you need to check when that comes.
How long is the lease, what is the ground rent, does the ground rent have a review, what am I responsible for, what can I not do, what do I need permission to do, what is the landlord responsible for, what are the service charge arrangements and so on.

leaseholdzzz wrote: »

Things I can/cannot do - the only problematic one I can see is that the lease requires carpeting for everywhere except kitchen and bathroom but the current owner has recently ripped up the carpeting and replaced it with wooden flooring.

You can ask the seller if they have written consent from the freeholder for that. They probably haven't, and the leases probably make it impossible for the freeholder to give consent.


The seller might not want to ask the freeholder about this, because it might alert the freeholder to the fact there are no carpets - which might trigger enforcement action by the freeholder.


So you should buy in the knowledge that somebody might complain and you could be forced to lay carpet (and maybe have an 'emergency budget' to cover that).