leasehold and the leaseholder!!

[NS215]

just building a small kitchen extension. we've informed the leaseholders of the land, of our intention to extend. And the reply was no problem if you cross our palm with £175.00
Is this normal practice ????????
I only pay £12 a year ground rent and feel this is rather alot of money to pay
I did ask about buying the leasehold and was told £1800 which again seems rather alot considering the yearly ground rent

 

[breezer]

put your self in their shoes.

now ask again

 

[NS215]

breezer i've put myself in their shoes and re asked the question and i still don't understand what the £175 fee is for
so maybe you or someone else could enlighten me as to their fee and what they are doing for it

 

[^woody^]

If it is for legal fees to update the lease etc then it may well be justified.

If its just a random figure to get some money out of you then it is not.

You need to ask the landlord.

Also see here www.lease-advice.org/

 

[Big G]

£175 is about the norm. You can go to LVT to find out if this charge is reasonable.
I'll post a longer reply tomorrow. My solicitor classed lessors as "Robbing B...", this is a family site so I won't finish.
G

 

[Big G]

A good ‘document’ to read is the “Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002” – or something like that. My solicitor put me onto this when we bought our house last year. It will mention in this document, which is very lengthy, about gaining permission when doing alterations to your property (I think).

When we bought our house, the previous occupier had erected an extension and not told the lessor (freeholder, landlord). Unfortunately, the lessor charged them £300 retrospective consent.

Has the lessor tried to get you to use their insurers? They tried this with me, then tried to charge me a ‘reasonable charge’ for getting my own insurer ‘approved’. Gave them a legal kick in the ‘nads for that. They haven’t bothered me since – but I’ve got to contact them again so the fun will begin soon!

There is a reason why lessors insist you have insurance and why they insist on approving plans for extensions. They are quite outdated though and not relevant for the 21st century. The extension approval especially seeing as you need planning permission for most projects. The main reason they chase you for consents etc. is because they are what my solicitor described them as: “Thieving B…s”.

Do you deal with the landlord direct or through a management company? There is a reason for asking – but I won’t go into that in public. Don’t want to give away my trump card when I go to enfranchisement (when we buy the freehold) shortly.

Also, how long before you start on your extension? If it’s a while, it may be worth contacting www.lease.org.uk (or whatever the link above is). I’ve used them before. See whether it would be worth taking the lessors to the LVT (Leasehold Valuation Tribunal) about the consent charge not being reasonable. If you do do this, let me know whether your ‘landlords’ use a management company first.


Hope this has been of some help.

G

 

[Symo]

Big G. I'll be going for enfranchisement shortly on my house. My leaseholders use a management agency. I would be very interested in any "hot tips" you may have? I have visited the lease.org site but, obviously, I'm hoping to get the freehold as cheaply and painlessly as possible.

I understand you might not want to plaster your tips on a public forum but if you could pmail me a little info I would be very greatful.

Thanks

Symo

 

[Big G]

At work at the moment. I'll e-mail you tonight. It may come to nothing - it's just I know that my lessors are being rather naughty in this area.


Gordon

 

[Symo]

At work at the moment. I'll e-mail you tonight. It may come to nothing - it's just I know that my lessors are being rather naughty in this area.


Gordon

Thanks Gordon, any help will be great! I think my lot might try and get every drop out of me, seems to be the nature of the beast! I'll go the LVT route if necessary though!


TIA

Matt

 

[NS215]

thanks for the replies

the extension has already started with full planning approval from the local council and the leaseholder has agreed to give his written consent when i cross his palm with the silver

 

[jwilliams]

Just to clarify: are you the leaseholder or the freeholder?

 

[Big G]

Quick lesson - apologies if this is teaching anyone how to suck eggs.

The leaseholder is the person (the tenant) who lives in a leasehold house. The leaseholder can also be called the lessee. Although they own the house, they do not own the land and they are charged ground rent - for our 1930's house, it's £5 a year paid in two instalments.

The freeholder is the person who owns the freehold - or the land that the house stands on. They can also be called the landlord or the lessor. They collect the ground rent off the lessee. They have to ensure that all the houses on the estate (think estate in the early 20th century sense) are kept in good order and repair - hence the rules about consent for extensions and the need for insurance. However, due to the fact that building land is now so scarce and you must get consent off local authorities for extensions, these rules are now outdated.

Not all Lessors should be tarred with the same brush that I am tarring them with. There are some that own hundreds of freeholds and they never bother their tenants other than to collect the ground rent. Colleagues of mine have advised their landlords of building work only to be told - "just put it in writing - no problem".

There are other people though who scan the auctions looking for freeholds to buy. They come up now and then and are picked up for about £300 each. Then, they introduce themselves to the lessee (leaseholder); usually with a request that the leaseholder uses the insurance company recommended by the lessor.

This happened to me. I refused. It got quite nasty. It’s all going to kick off again though as I’ve changed insurance company. Just imagine if I was a less determined 80 year old though.

Enough of a rant.

Does this answer your question? My assumption is that NS215 asking about building the extension consent is the leaseholder. He does not own the freehold.

Cheers

G

 

[NS215]

big g
you are indeed correct in your assumption that i am the leaseholder and thanks for all the info

 

[Rolo]

just building a small kitchen extension. we've informed the leaseholders of the land, of our intention to extend. And the reply was no problem if you cross our palm with £175.00
Is this normal practice ????????
I only pay £12 a year ground rent and feel this is rather alot of money to pay
I did ask about buying the leasehold and was told £1800 which again seems rather alot considering the yearly ground rent

Your free holder sounds quite resonable compared to some. When I was selling my leasehold flat worth £165k last year, 75 years lease remaining he wanted £25k to increase the lease. Didnt bother in the end, he still though charged me £500 to buy a license off him to sell the flat, each time a sale fell through I had to buy another one off him. My freeholder in my opionion didnt return the liciense signed quickly enough to try and make my sale fail, it did 2 times, both times he sat on the liciense for 6 weeks before returning it. In the end I got shot of the flat thank god but I had to take a hit in the value of the property to shift it. I wouldnt touch a lease hold property now with a barge poll not worth the hassle.