Flat Purchase

[M3333]

Hi Chaps,

I am in the process of purchasing a Flat. I already own a house and the plan is to rent the house and live in the flat. The flat is converted from an old Building, was originally a grand Victorian house but now contains 10 flats, converted in 1992. The flat in question is on the top floor.

Right a few questions as leasehold seems to be a nightmare compared to the freehold when i bought my house!

The owner of the building and freehold is also the owner of the leaseholds on the flats. The owner is a limited company and has never visited the flats etc. The flat in question is only £55k, the company is a large property development business in Kettering, i.e this flat in the north i believe is small fry to the whole of the companies portfolio. A letter from my solicitor today has informed me that 'the vendor has never resided at the property and will therefore not be supplying a sellers property information form and fittings and contents form'

Seems to make sense to me but is there anything i should be asking or concerned about? Having a quick look at a property information form online it would have some valuable information on it.

The lease, now i have had a quick read through, basically understand the basics but have a lot of questions. Obviously i need to seek proper legal advice on this to make sure everything is okay, but has anyone on here got any experience with this type of thing and can give me some very basic info on the do's dont's and what i should be asking or checking for? Things like it says in the lease the flat has an allocated parking space (hurrah as this isnt in the sales doc!) but it says it should be on the land registry ordincane document but it is not.

Lease is for 999 years.
Ground rent per year is £10.

Can anyone offer any advice please?

[touching cloth]

You need to know if service charges are a set amount per year or if you simply have to pay your share of works as and when required. If the latter, you would want to know if any major works are planned (could be about to reroof the place and the seller wants out sharpish). If it's a set amount then have the payments created an excess which is set aside into a sinking fund, if so what is it's current position - again if works are planned how well is the sinking fund positioned to cover these. Big old houses can be costly to run, couple that with a freeholder who may well be trying to make everything earn it's keep to the fullest (read that as, make as much out of you as possible whilst spending as little as they can get away with on the building) and you can find yourself living in a place the starts to fall apart around you.

[cjs]

Yes, find out what the service charge is, does it include buildings insurance etc. A 999 year lease is good and £10 ground rent is good.

[M3333]

Cheers guys, ill be sure to raise these with the solicitor.

the fact that the guy who is selling the lease keeps ownership of the freehold worries me a bit, surely it would be better for the freehold to be split between the 10 x flats?