Freehold purchase (house)

[randomthoughts]

I served notice to acquire the freehold of my property a couple of months ago and have just received acknowledgement that I am able to purchase the freehold. I'm yet to see their valuation (I think it may be sat at the post office as we missed a signed for letter today). If (a big if) we agree with the valuation/fees do we need to engage a solicitor, or would we be able to complete this ourselves. Is it just a matter of ensuring land registry title is updated with the fact we own the freehold or am I missing something? If I need to use a solicitor that's fine, but obviously if I can save a few hundred pounds that would be good too.

There is an official formula for working out the cost of a freehold - takes into account length of lease, any ground rent payable, value of property. You can find out via google. It's goes up once lease is below 80 years. If the buyer and seller of a F/H can't agree on price, then it goes to a tribunal which will decide.
I thunk you will probably need to use a solicitor, since the title deeds will need to be altered, though not 100% sure. However I don't think you can just alter deeds yourself, because of the risk of fraud.

We bought the FH of a flat, but it was more complicated since the FHolder was supposedly absent - in fact he was hiding under another name not far away because of debts attached to the FH.

If you do need to use a sol do be sure to find one who knows what they're doing. We wasted a lot of time with a high st. one who said he was clued up, but wasn't. Later found a specialist via google, it was Ringley Legal in London - IIRC they gave me a short phone consultation for free before we went ahead.

If I need to use a solicitor that's fine, but obviously if I can save a few hundred pounds that would be good too.

The freehold will cost tens of thousands of pounds; the solicitor will cost a few hundred. You want to make sure that you have proper title. Don't spoil the ship for a ha'porth of tar.

The purchase price is likely to be around £4-6k plus their fees, so paying £400 to amend the land registry records is obviously quite high in context. I spoke to the land registry this morning and if the price is under £6k no identity checks are required so it should just come down to filling the form in (apparently the transfer forms are filled in by the solicitor of the seller). I might try to go without the solicitor.