Ex-lessee now asked to extend leases: may own f/r?

[jeffrey]

So, as she owns a freehold reversion (but nothing more) for the flats, she needs legal advice- at lessees' cost- to verify/protect her legal position.
See the final paragraph of thevaliant's post #14.

[sgclacy]

The enfranchisable price is around £22,000 with a statutory lease ext for the shorter lease will cost the lessee with the 67 yr lease around £14k and for the longer lease around £8k

Its market value (ie if you were to auction it) would be around £17k

It is most certainly of value and you must get a professional valuation to ensure you get the correct value for it

[quarterday]

scrappy's wife's freehold of two flats

may i suggest that mrs scrappy

1. insures the freehold immediately (the cost will eventually be recoverable)

2. employs a solicitor to serve section 5(b) notices specifying that the freehold interest is to be sold by London auctioneers in the late spring. The auctioneers publish the date and times of their auctions well in advance. This may well bring matters to a head and lessees will respond by taking the opportunity to purchase new leases. There are numerous firms of auctioneers but I would suggest Barnard Marcus, Allsops, or Strettons.

The auctioneer can disclose in the catalogue that no ground rents have been collected for many years and that the seller assigns the benefit of the arrears to the buyer, which will be seen as a bonus by prospective buyers.

But in any event I would expect Mrs Scrappy will realise around £15,000 in auction.


Post Script
(incidentally i arrived at this figure using purely long personal experience of auction results before seeing the previous correspondent's arithmetical and much more scientific calculation at £17,000. But my figure is net of costs, so amazingly we arrive at pretty much exactly the same price. Barnard Marcus's minimum fee is I believe £1250...hence the nickname Barnard Mark up!)