Buying Freehold advice

[wendy7654]

Hi looking for advice from anyone that’s done this. We pay £5 a year for freehold and just had a letter re change of company for collection of the ground rent.
They have given the cost of how much it would be to buy the freehold, anyone done this and do we need legal advice?
Thanks for any advice

[Dr.JumbaJookiba]

Yeah, I bought it on our current house and also on a property I helped my parents buy when they downsized. Both times to simplify building extensions. It was easy, sent off the cheque making sure the deal included legal fees and then received title from the land registry in due course.

[wendy7654]

Originally Posted by Dr.JumbaJookiba

Yeah, I bought it on our current house and also on a property I helped my parents buy when they downsized. Both times to simplify building extensions. It was easy, sent off the cheque making sure the deal included legal fees and then received title from the land registry in due course.

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Thanks, does it add value to the house when selling it? We pay £5 a year and they are asking for just under £600 to buy the freehold.
Thanks

[Dr.JumbaJookiba]

Originally Posted by wendy7654

Thanks, does it add value to the house when selling it? We pay £5 a year and they are asking for just under £600 to buy the freehold.
Thanks

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I think it does, and it can save you money over the years. Depending on the terms of your lease you may find yourself paying much more in fees to your leaseholder if you decide to alter or extend.

[BevS97]

For £600 I would definitely buy it. Lots on our estate are in the process of buying and the figures quoted are in the £1000s

[Anne]

Definately buy it if you can. That is cheap.

[YorkshireT]

If you own a house, was this a fairly new house? It became a scam, from about 20 years ago to sell new houses leashold. I insisted when I bought ours it was Freehold but many didn't.
Some lenders are even refusing to lend now. So if it is a house, I'd probably buy it.

[sparkles18]

Wow, that’s a great price definitely buy it. We have just had to pay £13,640 for the freehold for my DH’s deceased uncle’s house.

If you come to sell the house in the future buyers won’t be able to get a mortgage on the property if there aren’t many years left on the lease. So you will only be able to sell it to cash buyers.

Definitely get a lawyer to sort it out for you, ours charged £640 but you will also have to pay all the legal costs for the leasehold company too.

[Omega1]

We bought our freehold about three years ago, our ground rent was only £20 pa (residue of 999 years) and would have have left it but the freehold changed hands three times in two years and each time they seemed quite predatory with collecting the ground rent with hefty late payment fees and astronomic fees for extension approvals, etc. We had a conservatory built ten years ago but no record of leaseholder approval. That was our driver to buy the leasehold. The fee included the sellers legal fees but I did the registration of title with the Land Registry which is straight forward as long as you have the correct form - all available online.

[Taffy1959]

Originally Posted by wendy7654

Thanks, does it add value to the house when selling it? We pay £5 a year and they are asking for just under £600 to buy the freehold.
Thanks

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I would buy it at that price.
There was an estate built in our village 5/6 years ago and it’s currently around £10.000 to buy the lease at the moment.