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In England & W ales , flats are usually sold under leasehold title because mortgage lenders require the flat to be under a maintenance agreement which is satisfied by a 99 year or 125 years lease. Most mortgage lenders will not offer mortgages on leases fallen below 70 years and seeking statutory 90 years lease extension at below 80 years incurs higher cost due to inclusion of 50% of the marriage value . https://www.lease-advice.org/advice-guide/lease-extension-valuation/

Bassguitar , There is a free guide and sample calculation of cost for statutory 90 years lease extension at 68 years and 50 years on the LEASE website . So statutory lease extension would add 90 years on the remiaining 63 years making 153 years lease at Nil ground rent. https://www.lease-advice.org/advice-guide/lease-extension-valuation/ The calculated cost for lease extension at 68 years is £10,700 for a property valued at £150K ( roughly 7.2%) . So for statutory lease extension at 63 years remaining , the cost may be another 5% coming to around 12%. You would need to check the current market value of nearby houses to decide whether or not to extend or sell.

Keep up complaining to your local MP when the man is elected next week.

withdrawn .

For some leasehold houses on 999 years lease and paying £2 per year ground rent, the FTT will put the cost to buy the freehold at 14-18 times annual ground rent. So the ground rent interest is only worth £40. It does not need insuring . Make a complaint to your local MP.

Make an offer at 25 x the annual ground rent = £155 + £300 legal expenses. Say £500 total.

The free guide to purchase of the freehold title for a leasehold house can be downloaded from www.lease-advice.org . The annual ground rent is payable under the lease but if the sum is small and cost of collection is high , the freeholder company may not bother to issue annual ground rent demands . The demand for payment of ground rent may be sent after 6 years . A freehold company has to file an annual report to Companies House but if there is no rental income during the past year , it can file an annual report as a "dormant company". For the records kept at Land Registry, the property will have a freehold title and a leasehold title ( for 250 years lease ) . A leaseholder ( of a House ) after 2 years, can make compulsory purchase of the freehold title ( for leasehold house ) under the L&T Act 1967. The FTT has powers to decide the cost of buying the freehold title. For leasehold houses on 999 years lease and low ground rent , the FTT have decided the cost at around 18 x annual ground rent for some recent cases.

The petition ( abolish leasehold ) closed on 1st Aug and managed to attract 31,830 signatures.

If you google search the company on internet, you may find a negative report by Daily Mirror.

Buying a new -build residential property under leasehold title means the buyer is paying the developer for the entire cost of development but the buyer is given a long term rental agreement. Buying a new-build residential property under freehold title, means the buyer gets legal ownership of the property . If the buyer is paying for leasehold property "just as much paying for freehold property", the buyer of leasehold is being cheated out of thefreehold title.

Here is the link to Which Report which gives their advice on ground rent doubling every 10 years . https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/advice/whats-the-problem-with-doubling-ground-rent-clauses-in-leaseholds

Sale of new leasehold houses will be getting the chop. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/leasehold-axed-for-all-new-houses-in-move-to-place-fairness-at-heart-of-housing-market The petition has attracted around 30,000 signatures and and far short of the 100,000 signatures required by 1st Aug 2019.

Joseph D + leaseholders of houses in Sheffield , For better understanding about owners with leasehold house problem , please visit website for leaseholdknowledge.com and see article dated 7 Jun 2019.

You can buy a new flat on a retirement estate built for over 60s age residents . But often the second hand flats sell at a loss, due to exit fees and the annual service charge being too high. Its better to stay where you are now and add a ground floor extension ( bedroom ) and subscribe to a personal alarm..

The Law Society requires the buyer side and seller side to have their own solicitor . So for each property sale, there will be a solicitor acting for the buyer ( & the Mortgage lender) and a different solicitor acting for the seller. Mortgage lenders offering the loan to buyer will transfer the loan to the buyer's solicitor just before the completion date. The number of transactions depends on the properties put on the market for sale and the asking price..

If you buy house under "freehold title", you become the legal owner of the property after the sale completion. If you buy a flat under "leasehold title", you become the owner of a long term rental agreement because the property is still legally owned by the freeholder. If you buy a flat under "commonhold title" , you become the legal owner of the property after the sale completion. ( commonhold is similar to freehold ) So if the leasehold is abolished and replaced by commonhold , the leaseholder will become the real owner instead of being treated as the tenant . This petition is about changing the tenure system to give the buyer " legal ownership of a flat " which at present under leasehold system , the buyer is only the tenant. The solicitor provides conveyancing services for property transfers and their services will be required even if property changes from leasehold to commonhold title . The solicitor is NOT the freeholder and NOT the leaseholder. The conveyancer's role is to act for the buyer or seller , and is NOT affected by the petition.

Thank you, Caz1 , Every leaseholder and residential house owner in E & W should sign the petition in order to nudge those MPs in Parliament to abolish the leasehold system . Other countries in Europe use Commonhold many years ago and even Ireland and Scotland stopped using leasehold.

Hi Francypants , Any ideas on how to contact other leaseholders to sign the petition ? I am sure you have some good ideas judging by 30,000 posts which you have made since 2012. Can you write a letter about the petition , to the Editor of your local paper ?

it sometimes happen to a house converted into 2 flats which are sold on and left the leaseholders to sort themselves out. The original freeholder has gone abroad to retire in Spain or to some other warmer climate country.

Fantastic , francypants , You are certainly No. 1 in Sheffield and South Yorkshire.

The population of the City of Sheffield is 577,800 (mid-2017 est.) and it is one of the eight largest regional English cities that make up the Core Cities Group. Sheffield is the third-largest English district by population. The metropolitan population of Sheffield is 1,569,000. ( yes over 1.5 million resident in South Yorkshire ) So Sheffield has enough population to sign this petititon and get Sheffield into the Guinness Records ? So ask your friends and relatives, aunties, uncles , cousins and in-laws, work mates , pub mates , old school mates , church mates, gym mates to sign the petition.

There is a petition ( Abolish Leaseholds ) which needs more signatures to reach 100,000 before it can be discussed in Parliament. https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/238071 Every leaseholder of a property in Sheffield and Yorkshire , Lancashire and elsewhere in E&W should be supporting this petition and have the proposal discussed in Parliament . This is not the "wars of the roses" for control of the throne of England. "The Wars of the Roses were a series of English civil wars for control of the throne of England fought between supporters of two rival branches of the royal House of Plantagenet: the House of Lancaster, associated with a red rose, and the House of York, whose symbol was a white rose." This petition is even more important than the throne of England. Its about who owns control of your house ? You , who paid for it by a 35 years mortgage ? or the freeholder company ?

There is a petition ( Abolish Leaseholds ) which needs more signatures to reach 100,000 before it can be discussed in Parliament. https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/238071 Every leaseholder of a property in Sheffield and Yorkshire , Lancashire and elsewhere in E&W should be supporting this petition and have the proposal discussed in Parliament . This is not the "wars of the roses" for control of the throne of England. "The Wars of the Roses were a series of English civil wars for control of the throne of England fought between supporters of two rival branches of the royal House of Plantagenet: the House of Lancaster, associated with a red rose, and the House of York, whose symbol was a white rose." This petition is even more important than the throne of England. Its about who owns control of your house ? You , who paid for it by a 35 years mortgage ? or the freeholder company ?

Its better to understand your situation that if you are the leaseholder of a leasehold house, you already own the lease. You should be wanting to buy the freehold title and terminate the leasehold title . After 2 years as the leaseholder , you can make a compulsory purchase the freehold title which is a right given under the 1967 L& T Act. For 999 year leases and low ground rent, you can probably make a compulsory purchase of the freehold title for around 18 x annual ground rent For your ground rent at £14 p.a for 800 years lease , I would expect you could make an offer around £250 to buy the freehold title. I suggest you look up some past decisions by LVT/FTT for price to pay for freehold title for house under 999 years lease by enfranchisement process under the 1967 Act The Housing Minister has announced plans to terminate " leasehold tenure" for houses but we don't don't know when this will happen. but you can push your local MP to keep up the pressure for this to happen.

The LEASE website has a free guide about choosing your own house insurance : https://www.lease-advice.org/faq/i-am-a-leaseholder-of-a-house-and-my-lease-requires-me-to-arrange-insurance-with-an-insurer-nominated-or-approved-by-my-landlord-is-there-any-way-of-choosing-my-own-insurer/