Freehold question

[olivebrown]

alfie2244 said:

terraced houses?

Ok not on terrace houses.

But you still has the legal right to enfranchisement, as from what you've given, you meet the criteria.

Have a read here, its not a difficult process, but inevitably will be - http://www.lease-advice.org/information/faqs/print...

And £500 ground rent is expensive, are you sure that doesn't include your estate service charge?

[JacquesMesrine]

smckeown said:

You would be foolish to under estimate the significance and financial implication of leasehold v freehold. How long is your lease?

and here's the first sotherner on the thread who will post the sort of nonsense I predicted in my first post.

His lease is likely to be 999 years. Explain how that's a problem.

My first house was 180 years old, the lease started at 990 years so it had 810 years to run when I bought it. The ground rent was £2.35 a year which nobody ever collected.

Exactly lain how that's a problem.

[Roo]

JacquesMesrine said:

smckeown said:

You would be foolish to under estimate the significance and financial implication of leasehold v freehold. How long is your lease?

and here's the first sotherner on the thread who will post the sort of nonsense I predicted in my first post.

His lease is likely to be 999 years. Explain how that's a problem.

My first house was 180 years old, the lease started at 990 years so it had 810 years to run when I bought it. The ground rent was £2.35 a year which nobody ever collected.

Exactly lain how that's a problem.

Good for you. A lot of leases start at 99 years.

How long is the OPs?

[JacquesMesrine]

Roo said:

Good for you. A lot of leases start at 99 years.

How long is the OPs?

He's based in the NW. He bought the house off a NW builder. I guarantee it is well over 900 years, probably with a 10-20 year ground rent review. There are no 99 year leases in the NW.

[Collectingbrass]

OP, with respect to costs associated with managing the grounds etc, I've just been to a tribunal over my service charges. The tribunal held that a management fee of no more than 15% of direct or "trade" costs was reasonable, and we also got the buildings insurance down to £100 pa per unit although there were specific circumstances on this. These were for basic 2 bed flats with no common lifts, door entry systems or warden servcies etc. Drop me a line if you want to know specifics.

Buying the freehold may not releave some of the blockers to things you want to do, fences to front gardens may be protected by planning permission conditions or covenants in the sale contract. Both are rarely enforced, but may remain in place after you buy the freehold.

Have a look around http://www.lease-advice.org/publications/documents... which will help more than hungover PHers on a Sunday morning. I have to say though if your freehold is 999 years, I wouldn't worry.

Are you sure the road has been formaly adopted by the council already? That normally takes years and significant rework, in your shoes I would want to see evidence of the adoption.