Hi peeps,
just looking at buying a house in sheffield.

When asking the agents 'is it freehold or leasehold?' we get 'dont know, its not important'. When I explain about owning a peice of paper or an actual house and land they say quote:' are you from sheffield?' it doesnt matter up here.

Surely owing a 'lease' of indeterminate length (20yrs, 1 yr ??) is NOT the same as owning a house and land. They dont seem to to worried about finding out either.

Is it just me, is it just sheffield, or what is it up here?
(Ive been in Sheffield for 5 years now and and 3 in Doncaster previous to this, though I have lived 'down south' to).

:confused:

The house buying system in Sheffield is different. A lot of the land is leasehold as I discovered when I was searching. Ground rent is very cheap and is not a concern to me. £6 per annum hardly breaks the bank. It is not like hefty service charges on leasehold flats. Oh yes my lease is for 800 years. I don't think I will care when it expires!!!

your solicitor wouldnt let you buy a L/H house with a term of 20 yrs left! Nor would anybody expect to be able to sell one (not at the right price anyway). Estate agents dont tend to know much more than whats on the screen in front of them, but they are right it really doesnt matter. Ground rents are minimal in in most cases are not even collected.

your solicitor wouldnt let you buy a L/H house with a term of 20 yrs left! Nor would anybody expect to be able to sell one (not at the right price anyway). Estate agents dont tend to know much more than whats on the screen in front of them, but they are right it really doesnt matter. Ground rents are minimal in in most cases are not even collected.

This is a good point you make regarding ground rents. When I bought my house my solicitors insisted the previous owner paid up the ground rent. It had not been paid for some years apparently.

As pp says the house buying process is different.

I would imagine a lot of properties are lease hold in the area especially leases held by the Duke of Norfolk.

We sold a property last year that was lease hold by the Duke of Norfolk but we hadn’t paid anything since moving in. If you live in the property for over 5 years and don’t get a bill (if we had to pay it was £2 per year) then you don’t have to pay.

If you’re not sure about it you can get the previous owners to get an indemnity against it – the people who bought ours were from Wales and like you thought it was mad. We got the indemnity it was about £30.

You could always try posting on the Housing part of the forum to see if you can get a correct reason as to why we sheffielders don’t think it’s a problem.
:huh:

As pp says the house buying process is different.

I would imagine a lot of properties are lease hold in the area especially leases held by the Duke of Norfolk.

We sold a property last year that was lease hold by the Duke of Norfolk but we hadn’t paid anything since moving in. If you live in the property for over 5 years and don’t get a bill (if we had to pay it was £2 per year) then you don’t have to pay.

If you’re not sure about it you can get the previous owners to get an indemnity against it – the people who bought ours were from Wales and like you thought it was mad. We got the indemnity it was about £30.

You could always try posting on the Housing part of the forum to see if you can get a correct reason as to why we sheffielders don’t think it’s a problem.
:huh:


Mine is not on Duke of Norfolk but is part of Firth Family Property. (Mark Firth, Steelmaker and former Mayor of the City of Sheffield)

sheffield has one of the highest %'s of leasehold property's in the country apparently.

My leasehold was 3.50 per year for 999 years (from 1936). It would cost me £1000 in total to buy out the freehold (inc legal fees).

Just not worth it, paid the leashold, till I sold and moved

My leasehold was 3.50 per year for 999 years (from 1936). It would cost me £1000 in total to buy out the freehold (inc legal fees).

Just not worth it, paid the leashold, till I sold and moved

I used to live in Banner Cross in a house that had a leasehold that cost me £1 per year. I received letters yearly asking me to buy the leasehold for an enormous amount which I binned. The only conditions on my leasehold were that I could neither sell fish from my basement nor install a traction engine. Can't say that affected my life strangely enough!:)

When you live in a leasehold property, you have to get permission from the leaseholder to sell the house though don't you and pay for it? We had to pay Sheffield Council £200 just for them to say we could move house! Rip off if you ask me.

When you live in a leasehold property, you have to get permission from the leaseholder to sell the house though don't you and pay for it? We had to pay Sheffield Council £200 just for them to say we could move house! Rip off if you ask me.

Is it only council houses that are leasehold property ?

When you live in a leasehold property, you have to get permission from the leaseholder to sell the house though don't you and pay for it? We had to pay Sheffield Council £200 just for them to say we could move house! Rip off if you ask me.
You don't usually have to get permission from the leaseholder of a private house to sell your property - I didn't. Your solicitor just informs them of the sale & new owner's details so they can send them the yearly bill. As you mention having to pay the Council, I'm wondering if it was a property they previously owned or had some control over and therefore have their own rules when it comes to selling. One thing I did find out through experience was that you need to get the leaseholder's permission to carry out any internal structural changes to the property.

Is it only council houses that are leasehold property ?

Council houses are always sold freehold which i found odd. Their flats are always leasehold.

A leasehold only becomes an issue if there is less the 100years to run. Then you may get problems getting a mortgage on the property. No one will lend you a mortgage on a 20 year lease, as when the leasehold runs out, there could be a reversion of interest back to the freehold owner.

My lease is for 800 years and the ground rent is £5 a year.

My brother in Brighton could not understand it either.

I think it must be a Sheffield thing- along with timber gutters on terraced houses (apparently there is no where else in the country where you find these either).

leasehold is only a problem if there's only a short term (sub 100 years) left on hte lease, OR if the property needs a lot of work as you need permission from the 'owner' of the property to do anything major (extensions, conversions etc). if you don't have permission and they find out within 12 years, they can legally demand that you remove the alterations and return the house to how it previously was, at your own expense.

I think there is a much more relaxed attitude to leasehold in Sheffield than in the rest of the country. My BF (from Glasgow) absolutely insists that when he buys it will have to be freehold - however insisting on this in Sheffield somewhat limits your options.

When I bought I found the estate agent's to be a pain in the bum for getting any kind of information. They knew it was a leasehold property, but they insisted they had no way of finding out how long was left on the lease (erm - how about asking the vendors?!?), and you will need this information when applying for a mortgage on a leasehold property - so try mentioning that to the estate agent.

Mine's an ex-council maisonette, with a relatively huge ground rent of £10 a year! And yes, being the Council, they do invoice for it like clockwork every April! Also, I've found ex-council flats/maisonettes do have a relatively short lease on them - mine's 125 years, but it didn't cause any problems. Other, non-council leasehold properties pretty much always have several centuries still to run on the lease, and with a ground rent so low it's not worth collecting (as demonstrated above!). In the house I grew up in the lease said we were not allowed to boil tripe or hang our washing out on a Sunday!