Leasehold - Considering buying it out

RowanTree

Registered User
Messages
36
HI,
When I bought my home over 15 years it wasn't explained to me the land was/is leasehold, it's only over the years through different things I figured it out.

I have contacted the ground rents section and after some mails back and fourth they have said i have to take the Arbitration route.

Questions
If the rent is too high can I decide not to proceed?

The length of the lease hold, (many years) where can this information be found or would it be on the deeds?

Is the Arbitration route long?

Regards
Thanks
 
Caveat emptor, it is the purchaser's responsibility to establish such details. It was most likely detailed on the contract of sale that you would have signed, though in the excitement of a purchase, many don't spend enough time reading the fine print.

Who owns the leasehold? Are they currently enforcing the ground rent? I bought out the freehold of my previous property from DCC, it took a while to resolve, but the cost was trivial.
 
Likewise I bought mine out many moons ago on an previous house. Leaseholder wasn't claiming rent but we were advised to sort it since it would only get in the way when it came to sell the house
 
Thanks for the replies.
I am going to apply to buy out the lease hold
Would the mortgage company know the length of the lease hold or would it be the solicitor that has the deeds?
How long roughly did it take for the process to be completed?
Again thanks very much for your time in answering the queries
 
Both your solicitor and mortgage lender would have these details from the tone your purchased. In saying that your solicitor is the safer bet for getting this in a timely manner.
 
In a previous house there was something like a 900 year lease. No rent being collected. I did make some enquiries with the solicitor. The leaseholding company had been liquidated. My recollection was vague but the solicitor indicated that tracking down and sorting out a buy-out was perfectly possible but likely to be time-consuming (this may have been the Arbitration route via the Land Registry). Also that it may be of little practical importance given the length of the leasehold.

The details of the lease (length of lease and any restritions it imposes on the leaseholder) should be contained in the property folio, which your solicitor would have seen at time of purchase (and maybe copied to you?).
 
We went through the arbitration process. We were not paying any ground rent and could not identify the current landlord. Documentation completed and submitted in a short time, however we were waiting a few months for it to be processed. Glad we sorted it out, as freehold now.
 
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