Thanks Balhammom, looks like we need to take a very close look at the lease then. I guess everyone is looking to make the most amount of money as is reasonable out of the situation!Balhammom wrote:Hi
I had a friend to did this.
It was a while ago but...
The landlord was ok but it was the downstairs flat which was the nightmare. According to the lease details they owned half the loft (!) - I understand that's not uncommon as it's a common part of the building. My friend has assumed that they would want a token amount for the loft but actually they wanted a "proper" charge worked out on a square footage basis. I think they agreed 20k or so (it was a long time ago) but I'd get it checked out thoroughly by someone who knows how these things work!
God luck
I think that was the bit that caught my friend out - she didn't expect the downstairs flat owner to be quite so hard nosed about it but his view was that she'd be adding bedrooms and bathrooms and would get an uplift in price so he wanted his "bit".I guess everyone is looking to make the most amount of money as is reasonable out of the situation!
Thanks Alchemy, I hadn't thought about approaching them before agreeing to purchase, I'd also be interested in seeing if it would be worth purchasing the freehold as well, the service charge + ground rent is £1,000p/a which seems a little on the steep side for a maisonette!Alchemy wrote: Make sure you get a quote from your freeholder before buying the property.
Thanks for the words of warning. Its difficult, because its uncommon (well, less common than leasehold), to find share of freehold flats/maisonettes in the area therefore leasehold is something i'm going to have to get used to.Sloaney Pony wrote:The freeholders can make a lot of money
100% mark-ups on insurance
Very aggressive pricing of lease extensions
A lot of freeholds can be chased back to some very aggressive owners ... via companies in panama etc.
Be careful