999 year lease on a house!!

[Elmambo]

Glitterballs, you must have the details of who you pay. Try your solicitor or citizens advice if the link doesn’t help.

 

Ian Parkin most I know pay a three figure sum per year. Some of the new builds are doubling every ten years. Google it

 

I have in mind there is a way to do this without having details of who owns the lease.

[Jeffrey Shaw]

I believe you have to obtain permission from the leaseholder** as well as the Council if you want to make changes to the house. With all the problem with new leasehold houses rapidly ramping up the leasehold charge I think it might be difficult to sell leasehold properties in future.

 

After the lease expires the property ownership reverts back to the leaseholder**

** No. OP is the leaseholder, for which role legislation and HMLR use the word 'tenant'.

You intended to refer to the freehold reversioner, for which role legislation and HMLR use the word 'landlord'.

 

---------- Post added 01-02-2018 at 17:22 ----------

 

No, none and my solicitor couldn't find anything when I bought the house.

That might have been because the freehold reversion was unregistered at the time.

[topflat29]

The Land Registry records for any property may have a "freehold title" and a "leasehold title" .

 

The holder of the "freehold title" is the legal owner of the property including the building and garden land within the boundary fences.

 

The holder of the "leasehold title" is the long term rental tenant with rights to occupy and use the property for 99/125 years etc under a lease which requires payment of annual ground rent and service charge by the leaseholder to the freeholder.

 

So to buy the legal ownership of a house and terminate the ground rent obligations , the leaseholder must purchase the freehold title from the current holder ( who may be known as the "freehold reversioner" ). When the same person holds both freehold title and leasehold title, the leasehold title becomes invalid.

 

You can download a free guide to buying the "freehold title" for leasehold house from http://www.lease-advice.org

 

---------- Post added 07-02-2018 at 11:04 ----------

 

What is the point of a 999 year lease?

Why not just make the property freehold?

Also, they say you should extend a normal 99 year lease when 80 years are left, otherwise it becomes very expensive to extend. When should you extend a 999 year lease before it becomes very expensive?

 

When you have a leasehold house paying small ground rent under a 999 years lease, after 2 years from purchase you should offer to buy the freehold title at 16.7 times the annual ground rent plus contribute to £250 + VAT to cover freeholder's conveyancing cost . See link below to recent LVT decision :

 

https://decisions.lease-advice.org//app/uploads/decisions/act67/1-1000/959.pdf

 

When you have a leasehold house under 99 years lease, you should extend before falling below 80 years unexpired term remaining because the compensation formula to pay freeholder includes paying 50% of the marriage value . You can get the free guide from LEASE which is an Advice Centre funded by the Government ( http://www.lease-advice.org }

Edited February 7, 2018 by topflat29

[DC81]

Hey Topflat29, thanks for your post there, you've no idea how long I've spent looking through those archives for a case relevant to mine ! Exactly what I needed.

 

Don't know how many of you are aware, but in December it was made illegal to sell a new house as leasehold.

 

It goes further.... Last Friday there was supposed to be a (now delayed til sept.) second reading in commons of a bill that would, if it passes as-is :-

 

-Set price of freehold purchase to a mandatory 10 x ground rent

-Remove the expectation that leaseholder pays landlord costs on purchase / dispute

-Bring compensation scheme to the many that have been misled into bad lease terms

 

That's for houses. There is talk of making purchased flats "commonhold" although this will be more technically difficult, and is not covered by this bill.

 

End of the day, given the "establishment" i.e. lords and such are the biggest profiteers out of all this it's unlikely to go through while the nasties are still in power, but decembers decision and these ongoing pushes show the will and weight of opinion to abolish what is essentially legalised theft, and a throwback to feudal times...

[topflat29]

Not so fast . The Government Minister Sajid Javid will be introducing new laws to end feudal practices including selling houses under leasehold title. See Guardian Newspaper issue 21 Dec 2017.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/dec/21/sajid-javid-promises-to-liberate-leaseholders-from-feudal-practices

 

Sajid Javid, the communities secretary, also said the government would go ahead with a ban on leaseholds on new-build houses first announced in July, and will force developers to cut controversial ground rents to zero for all new apartments and houses.

 

The government will also write to all developers that have sold homes with “onerous ground rent terms” to ask them to provide “necessary redress”. Taylor Woodrow has set aside £130m to assist leasehold buyers but other developers have steadfastly refused to pay any form of compensation.

 

Javid said: “It’s unacceptable for homebuyers to be exploited through unnecessary leaseholds, unjustifiable charges and onerous ground rent terms. It’s clear from the overwhelming response from the public that real action is needed to end these feudal practices.”

[DC81]

Far as I know that one is as good as law... People quite rightly weren't happy with it though, doesn't go nearly far enough.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42439155

 

Here's the one I'm referring to

 

http://www.naea.co.uk/news/november-2017/proposed-leasehold-reform-bill.aspx

 

And here's the one that pleases me the most

 

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2018/jan/14/property-market-braces-for-shockwaves-from-landmark-leasehold-case

 

As I say, doubt it will happen for as long as tories keep their head above water (not long now hopefully) but the idea of the landed gentry and other reptiles taking such losses via our countries law really warms my heart, gives me hope for the future !

 

---------- Post added 08-02-2018 at 13:38 ----------

 

Was meant to be read last friday, been delayed til october. Unsurprising really, would agree there's more pressing matters to attend to .....

 

https://services.parliament.uk/bills/2017-19/leaseholdreform.html

Edited February 8, 2018 by DC81

[topflat29]

When you buy a "leasehold flat", you are holding the property as the tenant under a long term rental agreement ( called the lease ) and paying annual ground rent and service charges to the freeholder ( landlord). At the end of the 99 years or 125 years lease term, the property returns to the freeholder and the leaseholder has lost all of his/her investment in the lease.

 

When you buy a house under freehold title , you become the legal owner of the property and there is no ground rent to pay because you are the legal owner the property.

 

So make sure you all understand that leasehold system destroys the long term savings of the families buying into leasehold property and transfers their hard earned savings tied to the property lease to the bank accounts of the freeholder company.

 

So its the responsibility of all citizens in England and Wales to lobby their local MP to support the leasehold reform and terminate feudal practices. So use your computer , tablet or mobile phone to inform all your friends and relatives, and grandparents in retirement homes everywhere to lobby your local MP.

 

The website to follow is http://www.leaseholdknowledge.com

[truman]

When you buy a "leasehold flat", you are holding the property as the tenant under a long term rental agreement ( called the lease ) and paying annual ground rent and service charges to the freeholder ( landlord). At the end of the 99 years or 125 years lease term, the property returns to the freeholder and the leaseholder has lost all of his/her investment in the lease.

 

When you buy a house under freehold title , you become the legal owner of the property and there is no ground rent to pay because you are the legal owner the property.

 

So make sure you all understand that leasehold system destroys the long term savings of the families buying into leasehold property and transfers their hard earned savings tied to the property lease to the bank accounts of the freeholder company.

 

So its the responsibility of all citizens in England and Wales to lobby their local MP to support the leasehold reform and terminate feudal practices. So use your computer , tablet or mobile phone to inform all your friends and relatives, and grandparents in retirement homes everywhere to lobby your local MP.

 

The website to follow is http://www.leaseholdknowledge.com

 

 

You'll have to clarify this..Our first property was leasehold..we paid about £10 a year ground rent ..we were there for about 11 years and we got all the increase in the value of the property..how did that destroy my "long term savings"?

[poppet2]

You'll have to clarify this..Our first property was leasehold..we paid about £10 a year ground rent ..we were there for about 11 years and we got all the increase in the value of the property..how did that destroy my "long term savings"?

 

Maybe he/she means, add this to the lease extention many people have to buy from the freeholder after a number of years, to make their flat saleable.

[truman]

Maybe he/she means, add this to the lease extention many people have to buy from the freeholder after a number of years, to make their flat saleable.

 

not very much to buy according to this

 

https://www.freehold-sale.co.uk/freehold-calculator/