Extending leasehold on a flat when we joint own the freehold??

[Cathpot]

Trying to sell a flat with 68yrs left on the lease and feedback from the agent is that this is putting people off. Need to look into extending the lease but it’s a slightly odd situation in that we as owners of the flat, jointly hold the freehold with the other 16 owners . I’m embarrassed to say I don’t properly understand the system and all the internet advice is talking about negotiating with the freeholder. Any one around who doesn’t mind explaining the set up and pointing me in the right direction?

@Cathpot In the absence of replies you could try this forum

forums.landlordzone.co.uk/forum/long-leasehold-questions

they are v good .Don't worry if you have to say "I don't understand ,can you explain " a couple of times .

Thank you, I will do that

Estate agent sounds a bit shit - it should be marketed as a 'share of freehold' not a leasehold flat.

Hi - I had to do something similar. Your estate agent sounds right to me. Essentially the company that owns the freehold needs to sell you a lease extension. There’s a government online calculator that will give you the approx price - search ‘lease extension calculator’. I used these solicitors who were fine: www.lease-clinic.co.uk. Good luck!

Hi- thanks for replies. I’ve found the solicitor who has dealt with previous extensions in our block of flats so she knows the score, and will phone tomorrow and hopefully give me manageable news about the flat. That is a good point titchy I wil bring that up.

But it is a leasehold flat.Having a share of the threshold won't mean that th e occupier is not also a leaseholder.

Threshold=freehold

Cheerful solicitor now on the case of who we have to formly request the extension from. Current management company- who are an outsourced professional organisation rather than the group of owners who used to run the flats- seem a bit confused about it all. They told me to approach the freehold owner myself. See what happens next week but I have accepted an offer now which depends on sorting it out.

Your management company sounds useless! You are a freeholder! Solicitor sounds clued up but if that fails try leaseholddoctors.com they are very good and can often give you useful free advice! As it is a shared freehold there will hopefully be no resistance to extending the lease, or significant cost. The best thing would be for all the freeholders to extend their leases at the same time to 999 years, giving everyone 'virtual freehold'. Cost of that should just be legal ones to get the leases revised.

But you're the freehold owner, along with the other flat owners You should all have shares of a company that formally has the freehold and have AGMs etc where decisions about extending leases, employing someone to manage the building etc are taken...

We all used to be in a formal organisation headed up by 3 or 4 owners who did all the legwork and eventually got fed up and outsourced the management of the building and grounds. The fact I don’t know if the original owner managment company still exists is completely rubbish on my part. We moved away 15 years ago and it’s been let ever since . Not being on top of things like this is one reason I’m selling.