We are in the latter stages of selling our house with 150 years to go on the lease hold.... we have lived here for five and a half years, and didn`t have a problem when we bought the house every thing went smoothly ( neither did the previous owner )..... We have now received a letter from our buyers solicitor saying... as your property is with Good Leasehold title they require a suitable indemnity policy to be put in force on completion, are you willing to make an allowance in the sum of £55 to your buyers on completion for payment of this policy..... now i know £55 isn`t a lot of money but i am feeling a bit ripped off. Has anyone out there had to pay a fee? sheffield city council own the lease and they offered to sell us the lease 4 years ago so there shouldn`t be any problem with this lease....
Angela

As a general rule, I'd advise homeowners to buy out their lease. We're used to long leaseholds in Sheffield but it does put off buyers from out of town who generally don't have experience of such a thing. It might actually cost you more to buy it than you would pay in ground rent when you take into account the legal fees but I still think it's worth it in the long run. About 10-15 years rent is about the going rate, plus legal fees, IIRC.

Thanks for the reply.. we didn`t take up the offer of buying the lease as we only pay £25 per year, the council wanted £300 plus we would have had to pay both parties legal fees which would have taken the cost up to around £1000.......to my estimation that is 40 years of £25s it wasn`t worth doing... I really needed to know if any one else has been asked by a solicitor for an indemnity fee upon completion.........

Thanks for the reply.. we didn`t take up the offer of buying the lease as we only pay £25 per year, the council wanted £300 plus we would have had to pay both parties legal fees which would have taken the cost up to around £1000.......to my estimation that is 40 years of £25s it wasn`t worth doing... I really needed to know if any one else has been asked by a solicitor for an indemnity fee upon completion.........

Thats looking at it financially from your side. 150 years is a relatively short lease, most are 800+ in Sheffield.
As you are now in the middle of the sale I would suggest paying the £55 just so the sale goes through smoothly. These indemnity payments are very common for all types of things.

When we bought our house, our solicitor asked the people we were buying off to take out an indemnity insurance because the lease title was not complete. He explained to us the difference between a fully complete lease and one that was not fully complete. Ours was almost complete (which may be the good referred to in your example). This had nothing to do with the length of the lease remaining at all.

If you are unsure then you should ask your solicitor to explain what the other side are asking for specifically. It is their job after all, make them earn their fee.

I hope it all gets sorted for you. Good luck with the sale.

K

Thank you for your replies.. We phoned our solicitor on friday she said she would look into it and phone us back on monday ( today ) guess what..... no phone call..... I will call her tomorrow..... and yes you are right at this stage it makes sense to pay it, I just felt it was more easy money for the boys........ Ang