Very random contribution but top of mind at the moment... currently going through the process of buying a home for the first time. It is absolutely staggering to me how people who own and live in a property can seemingly know so little about their home and get so many simple things wrong
Working through a purchase of a place at the moment. It's leasehold, and the owner got the lease length wrong by almost 130 years and this only came to light once we got a fair way down the line Then there have been various stages in the process where paperwork has been filled in incorrectly, sections of fact-finding about the property unanswered etc. Just losing time to solicitors receiving paperwork, reviewing it and then having to send it straight back to be completed again because it hasn't been filled out fully/properly, or very basic/foundational details are wrong and mean the solicitors can't get on with their work fully I get that not everyone is not always going to be clued up but it's certainly been an eye-opener
Yeah this happens all the time with houses I think. Plus you must get some solicitors who want to draw it out to increase time spent on it to increase their fees. When I bought my first house during the fact finding phase my solicitor found out that the land boundaries claimed by the seller were wrong by about a third. A third of the house was technically owned by one of the neighbours. The house had been sold 3 times previously where the seller effectively didn’t even own what they were selling. My solicitor asked me if I wanted to go ahead and buy it anyway or sort it out prior, advising I sorted it out as if/when I came to sell if the buyer found it then it could be a stumbling block and never know circumstances when I would be looking to sell, and if I wanted a quick sell then this could **** that up. Anyway got it sorted out, but it took about 8 months from memory to get the land boundaries changed. No idea if the person I was buying off had to buy the third of their house off a neighbour before selling to me
I know the last thing you want at this stage is some old know-it-all poking their nose in but I'm going to anyway. Are you totally happy going the leasehold route DTLW? I only mention it because it could cost you a lot of money further down the line. You can tell me to STFU if you like.
I have had issues with mortgages on leasehold properties in the past. Another problem is the nebulous term “maintenance payments”, which the freeholder is at liberty to change without consultation or negotiation. Get your solicitor to go through everything with the finest possible scrutiny, it will be worth it.
TL;DR - I'd prefer to buy freehold if possible, but I'm in London and it's not really Haha no, no issue at all. I'm trying to get on the property ladder/off the rental treadmill (whichever way you look at it) in London, so unfortunately there's not a tonne of options on the freehold flats front (70% of London flats are leasehold) and many freehold flats are incredibly bad value for what you get, because previous home owners know they will rush some people into a crap conversion just because it's not a leasehold and they can jack up the price in the process Beyond that, can only really try to take an educated punt. I'm avoiding buying new-build, avoiding buying anything high-rise and also avoiding buying something that pre-dates Grenfell and is liable to suddenly need major remediation work. Will be the second owner of the property, should it go through. It's a lease with 200+yrs remaining and without ground rent. Have only bothered looking at places that also stand up as a qualifying lease, so that it is exempt from any fire safety remediation costs too (although I've already had the all clear on the major scare, cladding... as it's a brick building) I'm somewhat fortunate that my older brother is an estate agent of 18 years or so, and as a result I have his solicitor, who he has done business with professionally and personally for many years, going through everything carefully, like Chilcs said. Paying quite a bit more for the service, but much prefer that to a quick glance from a solicitor who just lets you sign it because they'll never encounter you again It's definitely not ideal but I'm hoping the research and avoidance of less transparent private freeholders, high rise, pre-2020 builds... etc etc, can help somewhat. Always going to be a bit of a leap of faith admittedly. Can only hope the headline leasehold reforms the government are bringing forward currently will also materialise by the end of this parliament* I'm hoping to use it as a starter home and then move it on within a few years, rather than setting down roots for anything longer, so I will have to just cross my fingers and see where we are then... (*who knows, I see the landlords are already claiming that an attempt to abolish Ground Rent is an infringement of their human rights...)
I apologise to anyone who got through that and was none the wiser at the end, that post ended up being quite a bit longer than I planned
For what it’s worth, one of my boys has a flat in Bassett, in a block of about 40 flats. The block needs remedial roof repairs done and every flat owner has been told that it will cost them £6000 each. You might want to check that remedial work isn’t in place, or you might be landed with another bill.
I was just concerned that being a new buyer you might be unaware of the pitfalls with a leasehold. But I shouldn't have been, you obviously know what you're doing DTLW. Good luck.
That doesn't surprise me. We've had feedback on the safety report for the property that there's currently two outstanding works needed, which are already budgeted and dated for completion, but we're waiting to find out what those exactly are. Solicitor is confident it is minimal work such as replacing fire doors, exit lights etc. But we'll see...! I sympathise with the surprise element of these bills that just get landed on residents with little to no advance notice, but I suppose the counter-balance to that would be home owners who have to spend a certain amount every year or few years to maintain their property too with costly work that they'd rather not have to do. As mentioned though, the devil is in the control over the situation... at least if you own the house you are in control of the quotes, payment timelines and schedules for the work
Not at all, appreciate the concern and thanks for the heads up Even being careful and trying to mitigate as much as possible, I know there's still always going to be an element of risk and you'll need to 'get lucky' a bit with how it plays out. I'm hoping that if I'm able to get in and out in five years and use it to move onto a house, then I will avoid anything beyond basic upkeep as the building enters double digits, but who knows with today's building standards. Some of the stuff you read and see online is just shockingly shoddy
I think you're spot on here. There's always an element of luck if you buy in a block of flats. A friend of mine lived in a fairly small block (five floors) and I think they all had a share of the freehold. Either way, when the lift broke down the cost of repairing it was split equally among the flats. He was left with a bill in the thousands, which hugely annoyed him because his flat was on the ground floor!
l asked my wife if I am the only one she has ever been with. She said yes, all the others were nines and tens.
