Purchasing Freehold

[mc55 10]

watcholl it is potentially true - I get charged for next door .. it is bizarre

[watchcoll 10]

It can be a problem when it comes time to sell. The lady i bought my house from had to pay for indemnity insurance as she had no receipts to say the ground rent had been paid while she owned the lease. Despite my solicitor informing Coppen of the sale they have never been in touch with me to either acknowledge the transfer of ownership or request rent.

So she won't get her money back for the indemnity until 6 years has passed!

I'm not sure what will happen when i come to ask to buy the freehold on my house.

[Jeffrey Shaw 90]

No doubt Jeffrey will be able to give advice on this

Yes. It's uncharacteristic for Coppen to omit ground rent collection.

Here's some guesses at why this might be so:

1. Your solicitors did not notify Copen that you'd purchased the leasehold.

2. Coppen might not know your address if you live elsewhere (although it could still send demands to the house).

3. The lease might demise not just your house but others too- so demands for the entire block might be going to the leaseholder of one of the other houses.

 

---------- Post added 07-04-2015 at 18:47 ----------

 

It can be a problem when it comes time to sell. The lady i bought my house from had to pay for indemnity insurance as she had no receipts to say the ground rent had been paid while she owned the lease.

Yes. The point is s.45(2) of the Law of Property Act 1925. It reads thus:

 

Where land sold is held by lease (other than an under-lease), the purchaser shall assume, unless the contrary appears, that the lease was duly granted; and, on production of the receipt for the last payment due for rent under the lease before the date of actual completion of the purchase, he shall assume, unless the contrary appears, that all the covenants and provisions of the lease have been duly performed and observed up to the date of actual completion of the purchase.

 

Its meaning: a clear (= unqualified) ground rent receipt obliges P to accept that V has complied with all leasehold covenants.

[Chris Beech 10]

I get where you are coming from, but not dealing with the issue may exasperate the situation in the long term. Leasehold is a bad situation and should have some government intervention to eradicate these cowboys who holding leaseholders to ransom.

 

check out this breaking news http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-40711013?SThisFB

[Jeffrey Shaw 90]

check out this breaking news http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-40711013?SThisFB

It has virtually no impact on Coppen's freehold reversions. These do not include 'doubling ground rent' problem properties.

[shuhockey 10]

Has anyone purchased the freehold of their house recently and care to share how much it cost?

We have 900 or 800 years until it expires but would like to purchase. Yearly rent is about £6.

Don't want tostart the process if its going to cost 000's

Thanks

[nowt2pctoday 10]

Has anyone purchased the freehold of their house recently and care to share how much it cost?

We have 900 or 800 years until it expires but would like to purchase. Yearly rent is about £6.

Don't want tostart the process if its going to cost 000's

Thanks

 

whats the point if its got that long on it? would estimate £2-2500.

[Robin-H 11]

whats the point if its got that long on it? would estimate £2-2500.

 

It shouldn't cost anywhere near that. If the lease has more than 21 years on it (which this does) and they've lived in the property for more than 2 years, than the freeholder has to, if asked, sell the freehold to them - called a freehold reversion I believe.

 

They are not allowed to just name any price to prevent you from being able to buy it, it has to be a sensible figure. The rough rule of thumb is between 15-30 times the annual ground rent. In this case it would be only £90-180.

 

On top of that there would be legal costs, but these shouldn't be prohibitive.

[watchcoll 10]

Who is the freeholder? If it's Coppen Estates then they are likely to charge you just under what it would cost to go to Tribunal (about £1000) & then you'd have legal costs on top. So about £2000 is right. If it's not Coppen then it may be cheaper.

[Bjorn 10]

Mine cost £1200, my solicitor didn't have a clue how much it would be, it had 89 years remaining and my buyer stipulated I had to buy it or else they would pull out

[Dardandec 32]

We paid £2400 for the leasehold on our last house but it added £5000 to the sale value so a bargain.

[Hippogriff 10]

On top of that there would be legal costs, but these shouldn't be prohibitive.

 

Your estimate, please?

 

My estimate would be around £500 to £700 x 2.