I am in an area of the country where the council retains the freehold on developments - ostensibly to avoid fragmentation of estates. My developer owned the head lease when I bought the property, and has since sold it to a leasehold management company. The head lease is a peppercorn rent to the council and will now have 996 years remaining. The sublease is £125pa, increasing every 10 years at RPI, and has 222 years remaining.
I am planning to contact lease advice, and some local solicitors too, but I wanted to get a rough idea of what I am dealing with and find out if anyone has any experience of anything similar.
Does the Leasehold Reform Act allow me to purchase the freehold from the council? It isn't and was never a council house.
Does the Leasehold Reform Act allow me to purchase the head lease? Do I have access to the support etc of the tribunal, any legal protections? Or would purchasing the lease from the management company be a business transaction?
Would I be better off waiting for leasehold reforms to come through and then seeing what's what?
For reference my house/development has no shared areas, there is no maintenance or communal gardens or anything. One stretch of the houses has a shated bin alley behind them but I do not have any access to this. When I was purchasing the property I asked the solicitor about purchasing the head lease but he put me off it - I think because he didn't want to deal with it moreso than anything, implied it would be complicated and would delay the process.
I'd like to buy the freehold/lease because I would like to make some changes to the house (put in a new window, change the front garden, change a walk in wardrobe to a room etc) and don't want to have to pay the management company for the privilege.
I am planning to contact lease advice, and some local solicitors too, but I wanted to get a rough idea of what I am dealing with and find out if anyone has any experience of anything similar.
Does the Leasehold Reform Act allow me to purchase the freehold from the council? It isn't and was never a council house.
Does the Leasehold Reform Act allow me to purchase the head lease? Do I have access to the support etc of the tribunal, any legal protections? Or would purchasing the lease from the management company be a business transaction?
Would I be better off waiting for leasehold reforms to come through and then seeing what's what?
For reference my house/development has no shared areas, there is no maintenance or communal gardens or anything. One stretch of the houses has a shated bin alley behind them but I do not have any access to this. When I was purchasing the property I asked the solicitor about purchasing the head lease but he put me off it - I think because he didn't want to deal with it moreso than anything, implied it would be complicated and would delay the process.
I'd like to buy the freehold/lease because I would like to make some changes to the house (put in a new window, change the front garden, change a walk in wardrobe to a room etc) and don't want to have to pay the management company for the privilege.
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