Conveyancing | The Contracts.
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The logic of leasehold is hard to understand at times, that you can buy a home but not own the land it has been built on, and in addition spend money each year on service charges that can be viewed as unfair on occasion, not to mention the costs incurred when extending your lease.
This guide will look at the law that allows the leaseholder to force the freeholder to sell the freehold or take control of the management of the property.
Why should you try to buy the freehold?
If you own a leasehold property with a short lease you could be facing a bill of £1000's when you come to extend the lease, in addition to the ongoing charges such as ground rent and service charges, and it can all add up to a substantial amount of money.
If you own the freehold you can normally increase the lease for free, with just the administration costs to pay.
Most leasehold properties come in the form of flats; if you are to buy the freehold it will, therefore, be a joint purchase with the other flat owners. When you are looking to extend your lease, especially if the lease term is in excess of 80 years, you should be considering buying the freehold as the cost will be similar.
If you are looking to extend your lease refer to our guide on extending leases.
There are many advantages to owning the freehold.
Because of the rise in unfair charges on new homes being built as leaseholds, the government is to undertake a public consultation with a view to introducing a ban.
Under the new plans, the government will seek to dramatically reduce ground rents and outlaw leaseholds on new build homes.
Houses are normally built as freehold properties, but over recent years there has been a trend to build properties and sell them as leasehold, as a leaseholder you will normally pay a ground rent but on top of this you can be liable for many other charges such as management of communal areas and administration charges for alterations.
Around 30% of all leasehold properties are now houses.
The consultation will last for eight weeks and covers only properties in England.
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