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Showing results for tags 'freehold'.
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Hi. My Mother-in-law is a leaseholder of a maisonette and recently had her gas meter changed. After fitting, the engineer pressure tested the system and found a leak somewhere past the meter and within the property - capped gas supply on safety grounds. Boiler engineer was called out and confirmed it's not from there and as there's no other gas appliances (old gas fire decommissioned years ago) it's suspected the leak is under the concrete floor. My MIL raised a claim with the freeholders building insurance provider but they said they're not responsible for the pipes and to contact the gas supplier. Gas supplier say they're only responsible up to the meter - contact building insurance. I raised a new claim with the building insurance and this time they reject it because 'no damage has occurred to the property'. I'm contesting this and currently waiting on a reply..on the basis there has to be damage to the pipe otherwise it wouldn't be leaking. My question is, who is responsible for the gas pipes within a leasehold property? I believe they are within the fabric of the building and as such should be the freeholder's responsibility. Any comments or advice appreciated.
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Hello there, My name is Juan, I own a property in SE London (Charlton). The property is an end of terrace (only 2 neighbors) where mine is the ground floor and I own the front garden, side return and half of the back garden. I just need to give access the upstairs neighbor to the bins and his section of the back garden. There's no service charge, the ground rent is only £50 a year and the lease for both flats is around 150 years. I was told that since the ground rent is so low and the lease is still 150 years I should approach the freehold company and offer them to buy the share of freehold. The first floor neighbor thinks it'd be great but he hasn't the funds to buy his share of the freehold. I'm thinking on buying the share of the freehold for the two flats so I can agree with him to pay me back the loan gradually and agreeing on the new lease to grant me permission to extend the property as I wish. Can you see people any benefit on buying it on terms of investment? What'd be the pros / cons for this? I know all the steps, like me having to set up a limited company for managing the new freehold, still needing the green light from the other neighbor for structural works on the property unless stated otherwise on the new lease, etc.. The transaction can be around £10k so I'm not sure whether it's worth or I'd be better asking just for consent to the freehold so I can perform the structural works I need for extending. I'm just trying to weight up if on the event of me asking again for consent (there's costs involved on this as well) I'll be ending spending the same and if the fact of owning the freehold would have any kind of benefit I may be missing investing wise. Many thanks, Juan
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Hi all! I am currently purchasing two flats, both freehold (one ground floor and one first floor flat). This purchase will mean I will own the whole building (there are only two flats in this house that has been converted around 10/15 years ago). I've been going through the dilemma of purchasing through an LTD or not and finally concluded that LTD was the way to go; however because I am a first time landlord and the two flats are freehold I (my broker) has struggled to find competitive interest only mortgages and consequently wipe out the benefits entirely (and some) of going the LTD route. So now am purchasing the flats in my own name. Can I own the freehold of the land that the two flats are situated on in my own name (self-assessment) and issue two leaseholds (one for each flat) and have these in my LTD? How do you issue a leasehold when you are freeholder? Many thanks in advance!
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Hi Together with the other 2 residents in my block, I'm in the process of purchasing the freehold from it's current owner Im Looking for an accountant to prepare the annual accounts etc for submission to HMRC. Does anyone have an accountant they would recommend for this activity? Thanks Sarah
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Hi All! So I hope someone can shed some light on this very new scenario that is being played out before my eyes. I own a leasehold flat and the freehold was recently sold on and we have a new Property Management agency that we are paying service charges and ground rent to. I just received a letter stating that I need permission from them to be subletting the property, and need to register my tenant for a fee of £130 and from what I can see another £65 each time they renew, which is every 6 months and thats even if nothing changes. As well as £130 for each new tenant in the future. This was not something charged by the previous freeholder/management agency so a little surprised by it. Has this happened to anyone else and if so, is there anything that can be done about it? Thanks in advance! Cheers Alex -
I am currently part exchanging my apartment with a developer in order to buy a house from them. They have stated they require a Deed of Variation to change the lease because of a similar issue. My ground rent is £250pa, which turns the 141 years left on the lease in to an AST lease. So they want me to pay for the change of the lease so that the ground rent falls in line with the 0.1% mark, making it £180pa. I have no idea if the freeholder will accept this, and if they don’t whether the developer will pull out of my PX? Any help would be appreciated! Dan
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Hi All, Looking for some help on the freehold enfranchisement process specifically related to the management set up. Shortly a building with 4 flats (converted) will be taking the freehold enfranchisement route. All 4 landlords are happy to be involved. Nice and easy so far. As part of this we will need to set up a Ltd company to own the freehold and manage the building. This is where I have some questions. 1. The company will have 4 directors - does this in anyway link these people together outside of the company. 2. I understand after year 1 you can ask companies House to register it as dormant as its a freehold management company, however if there is money coming in and going out (not for profit) to manage the company (gardening, communal lights, savings for roof etc) does this matter? Will tax returns be needed still? 3. A bank account will need to be set up to manage this building per the above. What is the best way to set this up? 4 directors on one account seems messy and will surely link everyone together financially, but a single person may be perceived as risky for the others. Any advice here would be greatly recieved. Thanks
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Hi all, Looking for some advice as I don't seem to be able to get a clear answer from estate agent or potential conveyancers. I'm selling a property which has planning permission for the garden, as two 'lots' - the house as one, the land as one. I own both freehold and leasehold of the property, which is registered as one title at present. I'm selling the house to one party, and the land to another party. I understand I will need to split the title, but not how to do it, what it will cost, and if I need to sort that out before going ahead with the two transactions. Also I don't know if I'm selling as freehold or leasehold, and how that will work. (This came about because I bought as leasehold, 700-odd years, then had a heated debate with the freeholder over renting the property out, resulting in my decision to purchase the freehold from them and save the trouble. I'm not a strategic thinker.) Has anyone done something similar and can advise? I know it'll be more costly because of the two transactions involved, but I can't get an accurate figure at present because I don't know what the process is. Thanks
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Hi, Just wondering if anyone could give me any pointers / shed some light on a flat which has just became available. The flat is up for sale as a probate sale , it is not up at market yet but I know some of the details as the man was part of our cricket club. What I have been told is the estate agent has came around and valued this ground floor flat at around £100,000, this was before she realised it was a leasehold flat. It is not an external company who owns the freehold, each of the four flats in the block own a quarter each. I am unsure how long is left on the lease though. the flat is in need of a full refurbishment. my questions are: Is this an easier sale than a normal leasehold as I would be gaining a quarter of the freehold during sale? How am I able to find out how long is left on the leasehold for that flat? Is there any issues which I would need to look out for if the number of years left on the lease is lower than expected? Would how many years left on the lease be an issue if needed to extend as with owning a quarter of the freehold the flat you basically own the freehold on the flat in question? I am not so clued up on leasehold /freehold so if any of the above is incorrect please correct me and any information given would be appreciated. Thanks Joe Forrester -
Hi, Just wondering if anyone could give me any pointers / shed some light on a flat which has just became available. The flat is up for sale as a probate sale , it is not up at market yet but I know some of the details as the man was part of our cricket club. What I have been told is the estate agent has came around and valued this ground floor flat at around £100,000, this was before she realised it was a leasehold flat. It is not an external company who owns the freehold, each of the four flats in the block own a quarter each. I am unsure how long is left on the lease though. my questions are: Is this an easier sale than a normal leasehold as I would be gaining a quarter of the reehold during sale?
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Hi, Just wondering if anyone could give me any pointers / shed some light on a flat which has just became available. The flat is up for sale as a probate sale , it is not up at market yet but I know some of the details as the man was part of our cricket club. What I have been told is the estate agent has came around and valued this ground floor flat at around £100,000, this was before she realised it was a leasehold flat. It is not an external company who owns the freehold, each of the four flats in the block own a quarter each. I am unsure how long is left on the lease though. my questions are: Is this an easier sale than a normal leasehold as I would be gaining a quarter of the reehold during sale?
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Hi, Just wondering if anyone could give me any pointers / shed some light on a flat which has just became available. The flat is up for sale as a probate sale , it is not up at market yet but I know some of the details as the man was part of our cricket club. What I have been told is the estate agent has came around and valued this ground floor flat at around £100,000, this was before she realised it was a leasehold flat. It is not an external company who owns the freehold, each of the four flats in the block own a quarter each. I am unsure how long is left on the lease though. my questions are: Is this an easier sale than a normal leasehold as I would be gaining a quarter of the reehold during sale?
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Through collective enfranchisement, us leaseholders have acquired the freehold to a block of 9 flats via a single limited company. We had intended for all leaseholders to own a share, so we could extend the lease to 999 years and reduce the ground rent to nothing. But only 3 leaseholders (including me) ended up wanting to buy the shares and so I bought up the remaining 6 (making my share equal to 7/9). When the leaseholders that do not own shares extend their lease, how do we share the proceeds from that lease extension? Option 1: We share it as per the shareholding, so I get 7/9 and the other two shareholders get 1/9 each. Option 2: When I bought the shares, I effectively bought the leases of the other 6 flats so the proceeds of any their lease extensions go to me only. Before I get a lawyer involved, I wanted to work out what is the fair and correct way to handle this. And wonder how other shareholders of freehold companies deal with this situation. Any help would be appreciated.
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In our building, there are 5 flats and we manage our own freehold between the 5 owners, we all have leasehold contracts which include an agreed split on building maintenance based on size of flat. As mine is the biggest, I pay more (23% as opposed to 19%/19%/20%). We are looking at a new intercom system which constitutes one new intercom unit per flat, I argued this should be a straight split 20% each - I only have one door and intercom like all the other flats. The units are in each flat so not in the common areas and is not affected by the size of the flat. The other freeholders have argued that we should split according to the percentage rule as it is part of building maintenance . Who is right?
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Hello all. Me and my friend end have been in he process of buying a new build and nearly became victims of the recent spate of developers looking to charge £250 ground rent on the leasehold which doubles every 10 years. For anyone unaware of the problem with this have a quick read of this article from the guardian: https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/money/2016/nov/05/ground-rent-scandal-engulfing-new-home-buyers-leasehold We have been advised by our solicitors to pull out of the deal but are of course hesitant because it is a great location and we are so far down the line. Has anyone any experience with this and can offer any advice? Has anyone managed to buy the freehold? How Much did that cost? Has anyone been able to re-negotiate the ground terms? Thanks very much for all your help! James
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Hi Having bought a leasehold flat with my parents a couple of years ago I recently started looking at how I could create a property portfolio, having been reinvigorated by the property podcasts. Just as I start looking into this a come across my first potential issue with my existing leasehold flat, a Section 5A right of first refusal from my landlord to purchase the freehold. My understanding is that, assuming sufficient leaseholders are interested in taking advantage of the offer, we can purchase the freehold from the landlord. If not, the landlord can sell the freehold to another company and then they can potentially do what they want in terms of future service charges, etc to recover their investment. This is a completely new concept to me and I will be seeking legal advice this week; however, I wanted to get people's input on here. In particular: 1. Can anyone recommend a legal firm that specialises in leasing matters? 2. If sufficient tenants want to purchase the freehold (I think it needs to be at least 50%), but not everyone does, what happens? The freehold has been offered at £800k between 100 flats (of varying sizes). Would those that want to buy the freehold buy the whole freehold between them or just their portion? What would happen to those that are not interested? How would the building be managed if there were a split? 3. I am aware that there is also the possibility for the tenants to group together and form a right to manage company. Can anyone provide any information on this option and how it would impact the landlord's wish to sell the freehold? 4. Is there a way, as a tenant, to gain the contact details of the other tenants to discuss this issue? I believe the flats are predominantly BTL and, therefore, I imagine just sending a letter to each property (or putting a notice on the notice board) will probably not get a quick response... I wasn't expecting this to be my first PH post but I guess this is my baptism of fire...! Any advice would be greatly received. -
Slightly odd situation - I'd be grateful for Hubbers' views: A friend has inherited the freehold to a block of flats which his father built. The leases are all 999 years from the early 1970s and provide for an annual ground rent of £15 per flat. With 24 flats this totals £360 per year. There is no provision in the lease for increasing the ground rent, so as things stand it will just continue at that level. Not sure who manages the block, but it is not something my friend is interested in taking on. He has asked whether there is anything he can do. Over time he sees the income as more trouble than it's worth and, unless something can be done to increase the ground rent, he would rather just get rid of the freehold. Any thoughts? -
Good morning all, I'd like to hear from anyone who knows about title splitting concerning commercial properties that has residential on top. If an investor bought a freehold commercial unit with a flat then decided to sell each unit separately how you deal the title on the flat? I believe there are few options on how you deal with unit depending on whether you want to keep the freehold or not. In this scenario it would be if you want to sell all the units with the freeholds as well. The commercial unit would simply be sold as a freehold unit. Concerning the flat would you say it's best to create a lease then sell the lease and freehold separately? Of course I know a good solicitor will be needed to ensure the titles are prepared adequately. Just looking to hear from any here who may have knowledge and experience of this. Thanks
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lease Consent to let from freeholder
hs001jde posted a topic in General Advice on Renting Your Property
Good morning hubbers, I'm looking for a quick bit of advice from someone who has good knowledge of leases and getting consent to let from a freeholder. From what I have read previously in forums it seems that if a lease holder wants to sub let they always need consent from the freeholder and have to pay some kind of admin fee and send documents such as the AST and tenant references to the freeholder (or agent working for the freeholder). My question is, is this always the case? The reason I ask is because I approached the managing agent of my freeholder and asked them about getting consent to let my leasehold property. At first they told me there would be a fee and they would require the documentation I mentioned above. I looked at my lease and found that there was no mention of having to pay any fee to gain consent to sub let and no mention of even having to get any type of consent. I went back to the same managing agent and queried this and they immediately said I was right and that I did not need any kind of written consent as it is written in to my lease. This has left me slightly confused. I've never heard of a lease not requiring these things to get consent to sub let. Has anyone else experienced this? Kind regards James -
Hi, I am going through the process of buying my first BTL property. I had a homebuyers report completed last week and got the results today. The surveyor says that they understand the property is being sold on a leasehold basis. I was never made aware of this and I (rather stupuidly) presumed it was freehold. Does anyone know if I should have been made aware that it was leasehold or is it up to me to have found that out before making an offer? It was never mentioned in the brochure. Thanks Matt
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Can anyone help me with the following problem.... I own a tenanted but low value upstairs leasehold flat in a converted house of two flats. The downstairs flat has been empty for a number of years and is in disrepair due to a fire. It is boarded up and the council are aware of the situation although they say it's not dangerous. The owner is missing and bought the property without a mortgage. I think he will still be in the local area and probably out of work or in prison. I have contacted the freeholder's solicitors and received the following reply.... Further to our telephone conversation on Friday, I have today spoken with our conveyancing department before writing to Mr D. Our conveyancing department inform me that the freeholder, Mr D wouldn’t be concerned with the condition of the property as his only interest is the ground rent, which only covers the land. I have been informed your best course of action with being concerned about the condition of the flat would be to contact the council's Environmental Health department. Another course of action would be to contact the land registry, where you would be able to get the name & address of the person owning the flat and contact them directly. As the property is in such a state, I cannot see this being the best course of action, I think you would be better in the first instance contacting Environmental Health, but the option is always there. Sorry I cannot be of further help. I contacted the council about this 12 months ago and drew a blank as the property is not in a dangerous condition. There are a lot of empty houses in poor condition in the area and I can't see anything happenning via this route for a very long time, if ever. However I do now have the contact details for the freeholder. The only way I can see any improvement being possible to the downstairs flat is to find the owner and obtain the leasehold, or if not possible then try to obtain it from the freeholder. Otherwise the house will become a ruin. Any comments or suggestions would be much appreciated. Kevin
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Hi everyone, A few month ago I viewed a house which was advertised as a freehold property, I asked the estate agent to confirm this at least twice and they said the owner had purchased the freehold 20 years ago. After some negotiating on the price(£190k down to £160k) they accepted my offer in December and took the property off the market. The searches came back in January and it turns out the house is actually leasehold, the freehold is owned by the council and the head lessee is a construction company. The house is on the small side and very close to the city centre. It is a great location for a young couple or family but it definitely isn't a 'forever home' and it would't be of much interest to an investor, the home buyers report confirmed it is worth about £160K. I am fortunate to not need a mortgage and intend to live there for about 2 years before selling. My question is, If I buy the property as is (with 99 years left on the lease), is it likely to hold it's value for the 2 years? Also, how difficult would it be to obtain the freehold, before and after purchase? Any advice would be appreciated, thanks in advance :). -
Hello, I was wondering if anyone would know the process of enquiring about purchasing part fo the freehold? I live in a period conversion - 3 flats all leased but one of the flats owns all of the freehold. Can I purchase a share of the freehold and if so how do approach the matter? I havent had good relations with the freeholders who rent out their flat and who I beleive do not manage the property very well - ie communal areas are always a mess - even though i am a leaseholder when there are jobs and repairs to do, I pay a part contribution towards these as do the toher flats - ie iof there is roof work we split it three ways - I also pay my ground rent etc. What are the implications, if any of purchasing part of freehold? I have a good lease on my flat but I beleive purchasing a part of the freehold would give me a bit more of a voice in terms of suggesting what jobs are to be carried out, asking other tenants to keep the place clean and tidy etc etc. Currently I do not have a voice - it's the freeholder who decides on what jobs are to be carried out yet the cost is split between the flats!!! Any ideas? I expect i woul dneed to approach the freeholder to ask if I can purchase a share of it? Could they refuse? Many thanks!
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I bought a flat in a covered house last year. I own half the freehold and have a 999 year lease on the flat. There's a possibility of purchasing the remaining flat, also with a 999 year lease, which has the other half of the freehold. I'll need a mortgage on the new flat - but have been warned that mortgage companies don't like owners to have both the freeholds and the leases. Is the solution to: 1) Set up a limited company & put both the freeholds in there with 2 shares? Then incorporate into each lease a requirement of any subsequent flat owner to take up membership of the freehold company? 2) Alternatively, could I get a relative to be a freeholder? - or something else? Many thanks. -
Hi, I am looking to purchase a flat that comes with a share of the freehold, however it also has a lease of 89 years unexpired. How are the lease terms decided if I get a share of the freehold with the flat? Amanda
