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Buying A House With A Short Lease

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I am buying a house with only 88 years left on the lease.  My solicitor is unable to find the freeholder and no ground rent has been paid for a while .  Is the only option to go through the courts to extend the lease or buy the freehold and does anyone know how much it might cost and the timescale to do this.  If I pull out of the sale the present owner is going to have the same problem with another buyer.  Any advice appreciated many thanks.

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Don't do it.  Present owners problems are not yours. Unless you are severely restricted on budget or buying well under market look for a freehold property , 

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Yes, most mortgage lenders will not lend on leasehold properties having  80 or less years unexpired, so after a short period of ownership  you would be perilously close to the property becoming unsaleable at anything like the true freehold value.  As Blackydog said, proceed with caution, and I would imagine your solicitor will say the same.

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Leave it well alone, the seller needs to sort that problem out.

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I bought my first house with the knowledge that I would have to locate the leaseholder and buy the lease reversion before I could sell it because the length of lease remaining would be insufficient for any lender to lend on the property.  I have to admit that it was a pain in the bum that I really didn't need, looking back, although I did get it sorted and got merged freehold status 6 years after buying. 

 

The only way that I achieved it was through a solicitor who was already working for another property owner in our street (and presumably going to some expense to locate and negotiate with the leaseholders) sending a letter to all other houses on the same lease so lots of us shared the costs between us and got a good deal.  I've no idea how I'd have gone about affording instructing someone to go and do the legwork to find the leaseholder by myself though, as I was ill and living on a hugely reduced income by that point.

 

If there's an option to buy somewhere else without this headache, I'd do that instead.

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18 hours ago, medusa said:

I bought my first house with the knowledge that I would have to locate the leaseholder

 

No- you BOUGHT the leasehold, so the leaseholder= you!

You mean "...locate the freehold reversioner".

On 01/09/2020 at 19:23, bevbabe said:

I am buying a house with only 88 years left on the lease.  My solicitor is unable to find the freeholder and no ground rent has been paid for a while .  Is the only option to go through the courts to extend the lease or buy the freehold and does anyone know how much it might cost and the timescale to do this.  If I pull out of the sale the present owner is going to have the same problem with another buyer.  Any advice appreciated many thanks.

Is the freehold reversion:

a. registered at HMLR but with an unresponsive proprietor; or

b. still unregistered at HMLR?

 

Using the County Court and obtaining a Vesting Order might be a pain but perhaps worth it in the end.

Edited by Jeffrey Shaw

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1 hour ago, Jeffrey Shaw said:

No- you BOUGHT the leasehold, so the leaseholder= you!

You mean "...locate the freehold reversioner".

Is the freehold reversion:

a. registered at HMLR but with an unresponsive proprietor; or

b. still unregistered at HMLR?

 

Using the County Court and obtaining a Vesting Order might be a pain but perhaps worth it in the end.

It is registered at HMLR (my solicitor says it's leasehold but the internet says leasehold and freehold??)  The freeholder is the Duke of Norfolk and an individual person.  Companies house say the company has been dissolved so is non existing.  I've just read the leasehold document from my solicitor and it says that 3 of the neighbouring houses were on the same lease. 

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On 03/09/2020 at 19:21, bevbabe said:

It is registered at HMLR (my solicitor says it's leasehold but the internet says leasehold and freehold??)  The freeholder is the Duke of Norfolk and an individual person.  Companies house say the company has been dissolved so is non existing.  I've just read the leasehold document from my solicitor and it says that 3 of the neighbouring houses were on the same lease. 

You say, "The freeholder is the Duke of Norfolk and an individual person.  "

Are you taking those details from:

a. what the Lease Deed actually shows; or

b. the current entries registered at HM Land Registry for the freehold title number?

 

As to other three houses, ignore them. Most likely, the lease demised a block of four which subsequently went their own ways. What you're buying is most likely just one of them.

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It is from the lease deed.  Thanks you for your help but we have pulled out of the purchase now unfortunately.

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Probably for the best, let someone else deal with that headache.

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On 10/09/2020 at 22:25, geared said:

Probably for the best, let someone else deal with that headache.

Yes- although it's possible to make money too.

If the vendor of the short lease (V) serves a Notice of Claim on the landlord L (freehold reversioner), the rights under it can be transferred- to the purchaser (P)- by a Deed of Assignment. Once P completes the leasehold purchase, P is able to continue the enfranchisement. Maybe P's payment to L might enable P to sell again- now as a freehold- for a price enhanced by more than the total of what P paid to V + what P paid to L.

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Buy a copy of the freehold title and leasehold title  for the post code address from  Land Registry  Online  and check the  current  owners  names.   It cost £3  by credit card  to download each  property title.

 

If the names are the same , the  seller is  both  leaseholder  and freeholder, it means the  leasehold title has not been cancelled .

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