Neighbour want us to buy freehold so he can convert his attick - I'm not so sure

[SarfEast1cated]

Hi all, can you help? we live in a freehold Victorian conversion flat and our upstairs neighbours want us to buy the freehold with them so they can convert their attic into three more rooms.
. We don't have a huge amount of spare money so they have said they will pay for the freehold, but want to own the whole thing.
I'm not really keen on it to be honest, as we will bear the brunt of all of their construction work and not get anything in return, and surely when we come to sell it won't be a very attractive prospect for the new owners either.
Upstairs is making me feel really bad about not wanting to do this, so I wanted your opinion - AIBU in saying no?

Op errors are not easily forgiven on mn Or maybe people need to rtft?

Anyway this sounds like a nightmare, is there anyway you can push ahead and sell now? Once he starts getting planning permission etc I don't know how easy it will be to sell your flat, as no one else will want all that disruption either

TBH missDuke I appreciate any kind of response, as it's hardly a very gripping topic! I wish we could push on with selling our place, but I am currently retraining so have no salary. Should have a job by June though, but that's not quite quick enough for our neighbours.
Our EA has said that we should be able to ask them for payment for what will be our part of the shared roof space, but I'm not completely comfortable with that. I just want to move and then they can sort it out with the new people.
Any again, thanks to everyone who has responded to me - it's very much appreciated.

I'm so confused by all these posts saying that f/h flats are difficult to get a mortgage on - this is not my experience at all (having bought, sold (but we ended up pulling out) and then remortgaged twice, it has literally never been mentioned as an issue. In fact when we were selling the freehold was highlighted as a positive by the estate agent.

I would always prefer to have a freehold flat. Us and the other flat owners own an equal share in a management company. Luckily we all get on and can have pragmatic discussions about the work that needs doing. I would imagine if there was conflict between the freeholders it would be trickier.

Actually a bit of research (and answering my own question) lenders seem to have issues with a true freehold flat i.e. where the owners are directly named on the freehold.

Using a management company (which the leaseholders own an equal share of) seems to remove some of the concerns regarding this.

We have a 1st floor flat and own the freehold of both that and the downstairs flat - just 2 in the building. Owner of downstairs did not want a share.
While we were in the process of buying the FH (there had been problems with our purchase because of a supposedly absentee freeholder) the flat downstairs was sold, without any f/h related problems AFAIK.

The buyers' lenders/solicitors just wanted the name and address of the freeholder, and when we said it was currently going through the court system (I gave the name of the sol who was dealing with it) they were evidently satisfied with that.

LittlePickleHead - you have never had a problem getting a mortgage with your flat because you don't own a freehold flat. You have a share in the Management Company who manage the freehold. It is not the same thing. If you check your title deeds, it will show your property as leasehold. EAs always highlight share of freehold as a positive, but of course they don't scrutinise the legal documents to find out about the hidden costs (consents, service charges, ground rent, potential increases, length of lease etc) and some management companies charge £££.

Spickle- EAs will check that info, as potential buyers always ask the questions! (IME, I work for an EAs). For me, I would never buy just a leasehold flat as want to have some control.

say no anyone would struggle to get a mortgage on freehold flat so when u sell probably get cash buyer with silly offers

Dizzywizz - with respect EA may ask questions of the seller but, as shown above, many are misguided and information is not correct. The conveyancer will look at the title of both freehold and leasehold, the lease and all documents in the management pack to confirm the facts, EA does not have access to this. I am a conveyancing assistant so do know that the vast majority of flats are leasehold. While you can have a share in the management company, this does not make it a freehold flat.

I would want to buy a share of the lease, my friend wants to extend her ground floor flat and her leaseholder has told her he will charge £25,000 for his consent.

If you buy the freehold your flat will be worth around 20% more than if you keep it leasehold. Why not buy your share of the freehold, sell at the better price and let the new owners decide whether they are happy with attic man to proceed or not. If attic man puts pressure on, state you are moving out and the new owners can discuss with him. I dont understand why you care about the loft if you are moving out anyway?

Also never heard of issues getting a mortgage on freehold. I bought my freehold we set up a management company and all the owners are directors of it. It is far more desirable than leasehold where you are at the mercy of someone else. My dads ex gf had a leasehold where they decided to service the lifts and charged £25k per leaseholder in a block of 20 people!

How many years do you have left on your lease? And how much ground rent are you paying? If you don't want to get into the hassle of buying the freehold then you could agree to the neighbour buying it on the proviso of your lease being increased to 999 years and peppercorn ground rent. It's a simple thing to do as a freeholder I've done it myself and you will feel that you have got something out of it. Should make your flat more saleable assuming it's an improvement on what you have now.