Leasehold?

[ThinkyPantsWorryWort]

Hi there,

Anyone with any experience of buying leasehold? We've found a lovely, just lovely 2 bed maisonette on for a 'steal'. The only thing putting us off is that it is leasehold and we worry about selling it again in 5-10 years. Worried it might be a bit of a noose?

What experience do people have? First timers here and a bit scared!

Thinky

How long is left on the current lease? Do you Kb ow the current ground rent costs etc?

104 years. £20 p/month ground rent.

Sounds fine. Anything below 80 years is a worry because of marriage value and cost of lease extension. I bought at 72 years and spent £10,000 on an extension. As long as the service / maintenance charges aren't crazy your potential maisonette seems fine

At the moment leaseholds become difficult to mortgage below 80 years and of course the closer you get to it the more difficult it will be to sell.

Personally, (having extended a lease) I wouldn't touch one less than 125 years.

Or as noisytoys says you have 10k to spend on extending it :-)

Is it 80 years? I thought less than 100 years was considered not great (London)

The lease length is fine and you can extend it by 89 years once you have owned the lease for two years. I wouldn't worry about it for an instant in terms of lease length. What you do have to do a bit of digging about is what the freeholder is like: does the freeholder maintain the property properly and charge a fair price for repairs? What are service charges like? How strictly are lease covenants upheld? Have the responsibilities of the freeholder been devolved to a right to manage (RTM) company - generally a good thing as it will give residents a chance to make decisions about the way the building is run themselves but can end up tricky if the RTM just becomes riven by infighting or runs out of steam due to resident apathy.

I am a property lawyer, nothing to worry about. Your solicitor should summarise the lease terms for you and put your mind at rest. Flats or maisonettes are leasehold (sometimes with a share of freehold) so this is not unusual at all. The length of the lease is a concern only when it is below 70 years but each mortgage lender has its own rules on that. Yours should be fine.

Thank you for the replies. We've had a lot to think about these last 48 hours. Today my place if employment announced a restructure. It's possible it will be beneficial to me so we are going to sit tight- our 'forever home' might not be as far away as we thought.