Author Topic: buying property on a lease hold,??  (Read 1364 times)

Alfred

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buying property on a lease hold,??
« on: Mar 08, 2019, 08:54:56 AM »
Having read of people who bought property on a mortgage, not realising  that the property they are buying is on a lease hold and not free hold?   even though some of these properties are doubling the leasehold every seven years, it seems,

surely the person/s  buying property should check the terms and conditions when entering into a contract, and i wonder if, or why, these peoples solicitors, aren't doing their job correctly, even though its the buyers responsibility to make sure the property they are buying is free hold , and not lease hold,

Q; have you any thoughts on this worrying trend. or is it some people have too much trust in others ,???

Traveller

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Re: buying property on a lease hold,??
« Reply #1 on: Mar 08, 2019, 09:27:12 AM »
When I returned to Scotland, having never owned property there, I had come confused conversations with estate agents about freehold and 'Tenants in common' .  Feudal tenure and associated costs had been abolished (starting in 2000) and so dwellings and land are now generally owned outright.

I would never recommend buying a leasehold house.  Too many cases of the developer selling the leases to a 'management company' who increase the rents year on year.
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minniemouse

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Re: buying property on a lease hold,??
« Reply #2 on: Mar 08, 2019, 09:28:47 AM »
As far as I know what you refer to are mainly apartments whose ground rent doubles every 7/10 years, thus rendering them unsaleable in the future.  Yes, Solicitors should make you aware of this when you are thinking of purchasing such a property but at the end of the day they can only warn and advise against purchasing. It's up to the purchaser whether to take this advice or to go ahead regardless.
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Undercover Pensioner

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Re: buying property on a lease hold,??
« Reply #3 on: Mar 08, 2019, 09:35:40 AM »

I thought it was doubling every ten years Alfred but basically yes, some builders have jumped on the bandwagon and included this extra income raiser in their business model.  The government are meant to be dealing with this but the relevant Bill seems to have been pushed aside because they can only think about Brexit at the moment.


At one time, it was mainly flats that were leasehold and where houses were they were often owned by the Church and the ground rent was a peppercorn amount.  The builders are now jumping on the MaCarthy and Stone model where they cite common use facilities, sometimes just a small piece of grass in front of all the houses and then make them leasehold.  The lease is then sold on when the builders leave the site.  Although I am happy to believe that some of this is because companies are greedy I do wonder if it was triggered by local authorities pushing back the care of "common" land onto the builders.


Like you I would have thought the people buying these should have some redress against their solicitor but they may have had this pointed out and not understood the implications.  Many of the houses affected are first-time buyer homes.  It will all come up again in Parliament at some point but it is worth warning people that this is happening.
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Cee Gee

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Re: buying property on a lease hold,??
« Reply #4 on: Mar 08, 2019, 09:43:52 AM »

Undercover Pensioner

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Re: buying property on a lease hold,??
« Reply #5 on: Mar 08, 2019, 12:42:46 PM »
Interesting read. 1993 act
www.leaseholdadvicecentre.co.uk/Collective%20Enfranchisement.htm



Very useful piece of advice CG.  I notice they mention the old peppercorn ground rent rather than these new ones.  From what I understand the reason the Government is picking up on this new model is because it is being used on those houses being sold under Help to Buy. I imagine someone at some point will point the finger at them and, whether or not they are culpable, will push some of the blame in their direction.


I don't feel up to speed on the new Bill as little has been written about because of the delay but, if I remember rightly, they are trying to limit the ground rent back to an amount (£10 p.a. comes to mind) similar to the old peppercorn level.

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brian54

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Re: buying property on a lease hold,??
« Reply #6 on: Mar 08, 2019, 06:35:30 PM »
Oddly it came out in conversation with a neighbour of mine her bungalow had a 99 year lease on the ground but she owned the building. Her parents were the original owners and she inherited it 15 years ago.
She said she will be 96 when the lease expires so it will not affect her.
I pointed out it is possible she could be there when she is 96 and when I delved a bit deeper she was wanting her son and daughter to inherit it
She said the rent is only £15 a year,
Realising the terms of the lease meant the bungalow could revert to the sellers she decided to take up the option to buy the land for £300.
The only problem was the solicitors fees came to about £1,500.

Raven

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Re: buying property on a lease hold,??
« Reply #7 on: Mar 08, 2019, 06:46:13 PM »
Solicitors in my opinion are right up there with Insurance Companies.  They are all money grabbing gits, they should be wearing black masks and riding big black horses...... My opinion only.  >:(

Traveller

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Re: buying property on a lease hold,??
« Reply #8 on: Mar 08, 2019, 09:51:30 PM »
There's an old saying, "A person who acts as their own solicitor has a fool for a client."
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zoony

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Re: buying property on a lease hold,??
« Reply #9 on: Mar 08, 2019, 10:01:51 PM »
But at least it's not costing £1500..I acted for myself in the only legal wrangle I was ever involved in and won it...Granted, that was probably because of their malfeasance but all the same..
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GrannyMac

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Re: buying property on a lease hold,??
« Reply #10 on: Mar 09, 2019, 06:18:16 AM »
Lots of houses in Sheffield are leasehold.  We'd always bought freehold til we came here.  Ours is a 999 year lease, ground rent £5 a year.  Our daughter's was similar, she had no problem selling.  Very different to new build leases.
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minniemouse

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Re: buying property on a lease hold,??
« Reply #11 on: Mar 09, 2019, 09:07:02 AM »
.....It's only the ones where the ground rent doubles every 10 years that are having a problem.  This is a new idea.
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Diasi

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Re: buying property on a lease hold,??
« Reply #12 on: Mar 09, 2019, 09:19:13 AM »
There's an old saying, "A person who acts as their own solicitor has a fool for a client."

I certainly wasn't a fool when I sacked my solicitor just before my civil court hearing & represented myself & won the case.
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Michael Rolls

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Re: buying property on a lease hold,??
« Reply #13 on: Mar 09, 2019, 12:02:11 PM »
The advantage of using a solicitor in many instances (but not all) is that if something goes wrong you have a source of redress.
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Diasi

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Re: buying property on a lease hold,??
« Reply #14 on: Mar 09, 2019, 12:11:42 PM »
The advantage of using a solicitor in many instances (but not all) is that if something goes wrong you have a source of redress.
Mike

i agree, it's, as Dirty Harry used to say, a matter of knowing your limitations.
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