Short lease on flat - could it be a problem?
Interested in buying a studio flat in UK. Nice and appears good value for money but has 60 years left on lease. Existing owner has advised that it would cost £6,500 to extend. I’m not intending to sell it within the next few years but obviously I dont know what is happening in the future. Some of the flats in the same block have 999 yr leases with share of freehold so I dont know why this one doesnt.
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September 8th, 2009 at 3:22 am
Often alot of properties have a lease of 100 years if they are a protected building, this is sso the national tru can get in there at intervals and do the required maintanace work, if it is only 6.5 to release then you may aswell buy, if in ten years you want to sell then the buyer also has the option to extend their lease.
I personally would prefer to buy something i own indefinately, it seems a bit of a con as lease hold has the same price as a owned home… why not find a nice place where you own it indefinately?
September 10th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
i wouldn’t worry too much about the time on the lease. but being a leasehold flat, the freeholder will be responsible for the exterior maintenance (i.e. roof, painting etc) and they often don’t organize it that well or get builders that charge extortionate amounts.
share of freehold is much better because you can get together with the other freeholders and decide what needs to be done and get lots of quotes in
September 12th, 2009 at 4:57 am
I would ask for written confirmation from the lease holder about how much it would cost, vender’s have been known to lie in order to obtain a sale. How long they are prepared to extend your lease. You can go to arbitration if the charge is too high.
If you need to borrow money to purchase the property a lender may insist that you extend the lease if the consider the duration remaining too short.
The reason some may have a long 999 year lease and some a shorter is due to different companies running them, your owner may have turned down the opportunity to extend it a few years ago when the owners were looking to get some additional revenue back from the flats occupants and now you may end up penalized as a result.