Leasehold Issue

[bladebloke]

The landlord will almost certainly be in breach of his obligations under the lease and it sounds like there is a significant sum of money at stake. Forget about free advice. Get yourself to a decent property litigator and take proper, paid for, advice as to what your options are for a remedy. Even if you don't chose to pursue the landlord through the courts, knowing what you could potentially do should at least give you the ammunition to negotiate a proper price that makes it worth you making an exit.

If you're the only thing standing between him and a tidy profit for the redevelopment, it certainly should be the case that you are holding the cards, not vice versa.

[zedstar]

bladebloke said:

If you're the only thing standing between him and a tidy profit for the redevelopment, it certainly should be the case that you are holding the cards, not vice versa.

Spot on. OP do what he says. You're the thorn in his side not the other way round....

[Rangeroverover]

If you have legal insurance it may be you can use that to fund litigation

[matjk]

if the freeholder has a sense that the OP is running low on cash and has a mortgage on the place then he knows he can be an arse and just hold out till the op folds, I bet he knows the situation and knows waiting could save him £££.
What about sticking the place up at auction, put a reserve on where you can get out with loss.
Someone else might see it as a good opportunity to blackmail the free holder for more than its worth.

[kiethton]

matjk said:

put a reserve on where you can get out with loss.

Any decent auction house wouldn't accept it if the reserve price was significantly above valuation as a non-sale would screw their performance metrics for future marketing

[xjay1337]

Take the to court, he has to maintain the building.

He sounds like a throbber.

[matjk]

well whats the valuation, because the freeholder isnt going to pay more than that. How long has this been going on? Did you buy it cheap because it was a bit of a state hoping the freeholder would fix it up?

[matjk]

or insure it well, burn it to the ground and the freeholder will get the blame as he benefits most.
(dont do this)!!