General (main property discussion here) - Freehold

Can anyone advise on procedure for buying out freehold.

I have experience with domestic as well as commercial freehold property. What do you mean by "buying out freehold"? Are you refereing to a lease hold tenant buying their premises as a freehold from the existing landlord? Or, for you to buy a house / commercial unit as a freehold form the begining?

Always happy to help.

Regards, Malik

Hi Malik, thanks for your quick responds. Sorry I did not make myself clear. I bought a flat with a lease and want ot know the procedure for buying out freehold from the existing landlord.

Thanx

Joe

See:

http://www.lease-advice.org.uk/cegsframe.htm

and

http://www.leaseholdadvice.co.uk/

Good luck

Joe,

The URL's posted by Robin are excellent and ones which I will save... thanks Robin.

It would seem from the information from the links that you will probably not be able to go it alone as far as lease hold purchase of a single unti is concerned from your freeholder: rather a group is probably needed so that each unit is ultimately freehold. That makes sence and is probably quite a difficult task as many tenant may not want to own their rentals.

If you are in a position to negotiate a freehold purchase, it may be better to start with a new purchase on a new build rather than fighting for your existing place.

In a legally difficult situation like this I would advise talking to a lawyer.

Regards, Malik

Joe, I am wondering why you want to buy the freehold.

The length of a residential lease does not begin to affect the OMV until the unexpired term fallsbelow approx. 70 years. At around this point mortgage lenders become reluctant to lend on such properties. Just make sure you sell well before then.

I remember when I bought the freehold of my maisonette we needed to have 50% of the block wanting to buy. This was n't difficult as there were only 4 maisonettes and the lease was down to 60 years. I was able to find one other leaseholder who understood and was motivated by the benefits of acquiring the freehold. We purchased 50% each then extended our own leases to 99 years. We charged one of the other leaseholders the market value for extending his lease to 99 years to facilitate him selling the place. We still have one leaseholder who's lease is becoming very short but we know that at some point in time if he wants to sell and move on then he will have to come to us for a lease extension,money in the bank;-)