Should we walk away?

[SomeonesMum123]

We’re currently in the process of buying a 3 bed flat in london, we put in an offer and had it accepted for a freehold property. After a few weeks our lawyer contacted us and asked if we knew why the property was now a 999 year leasehold instead of the share of freehold we had been promised. This was complete news to us and when questioned the sellers solicitor was very aggressive with ours demanding we move forward. The estate agent had no idea that there had been a change either.

Turns out the seller shares the freehold with his siblings for the whole building and is now claiming he will transfer the freehold to us at a later date, once another flat in the building has sold. We offered to buy the entire freehold for the building but the sellers solicitor rejected that without even speaking to the seller. We then went to the estate agent who took a week to get in touch with the seller, who again on advice from their solicitor has rejected this proposition.

We have now gone back with a revised offer, with a reduced amount up front and a reserved amount that will transfer when we do get the freehold as we have repeatedly been told to “trust the seller” and that we will get the freehold at a later date. We went through the estate agent again with this proposal and he has now emailed us back saying the seller was talking to his lawyer about it. Our solicitor has emailed the sellers solicitor who has sent back a single line “why has there been a reduction in price”.

The solicitor has been rude a number of times in his replies, and basically refused to have any discussions around potential negotiation despite the fact that what we put in an offer for and what we are now looking to purchase are different.

The flat is great and the location works well for us, but are we just dealing with some con men and should we walk away?! There is no chain on either side so this really should have been a quick transaction!

I would state on Monday that it is either sold as originally agreed, with a share of freehold or walk away. One chance only

We've had both share of freehold and freehold properties. I'm generally a fairly trusting and not overly risk-averse persin, but I'd walk away from without hesitation unless the seller agreed to sell the share of freehold as agreed originally. There is no way on earth I'd trust them to transfer the freehold 'in the future'.

Both the sellers and their solicitors (I suspect they may be family/ friends of sellers as another poster suggested) sound awful and thoroughly untrustworthy. They have deliberately misled you and are now blocking you and behaving aggressively.
Good luck with finding something else.

It's not the same thing. The freeholders will con you with inflated repair costs if you only hold leasehold. The property market in this country is very much balanced to the owners and you may be used to a system in Canada which protects renters/leaseholders more. It's impossible not to be ripped off unless you own the freehold or can otherwise manage building wide repair costs.

I'd look elsewhere and forget this place.

They're being dodgy. So spend your money elsewhere.

I didn't see all your posts so glad to see you've decided not to proceed.

Thanks everyone. One last question, (and this is totally cheeky, and childish I know) but is there any way we could let the sellers solicitors bosses know that the main reason for the sales collapse is because of his behaviour?

He’s a “consultant” for a law firm, and honestly if it was someone that worked for me, I’d want to know how entirely inappropriately he has behaved. (Responding to offers without speaking to his client, quoting other law firms sites without citing them, changing context entirely, sending inappropriate emails with varying degrees of rudeness and incoherent English to our lawyers).

Am I totally out of line?

Glad you’re walking away OP. I wouldn’t waste any more time or emotion on this place, so I wouldn’t bother giving feedback on their solicitor etc. Hope you find your dream property soon. We had a couple of purchases not proceed. I was gutted at the time, but with hindsight it all worked of for the best 😊

Is there any way of reporting a solicitor? Any solicitor regulatory bodies? He shouldn’t be able to behave like that. Ought to be struck off, if that is possible with a solicitor.

Yes the managing partner should be informed. They will
also have a compliance officer - think that has a slightly different name though.

You have checked he’s actually a solicitor....

I would inform the managing partner - send copies of the solicitor's emails.

OP you are not a client of the seller's solicitor so any complaint you make will be ignored. Move onwards and upwards.

I agree that the sellers don't sound great and therefore it's sensible to have walked away.

999 year leaseholds are referred to in the market as "virtual freeholds" but that's because of their length (and one or two of the terms) but they are definitely still leaseholds.

@SomeonesMum123

Thanks everyone. One last question, (and this is totally cheeky, and childish I know) but is there any way we could let the sellers solicitors bosses know that the main reason for the sales collapse is because of his behaviour?

He’s a “consultant” for a law firm, and honestly if it was someone that worked for me, I’d want to know how entirely inappropriately he has behaved. (Responding to offers without speaking to his client, quoting other law firms sites without citing them, changing context entirely, sending inappropriate emails with varying degrees of rudeness and incoherent English to our lawyers).

Am I totally out of line?

But that’s not the main reason your no-longer buying. Don’t go down that route as you will come across as petty and it will just be stressful for you.

I am in the process of buying a flat - one of two in a large building. It's a shared freehold. It is managed through a holding company owned by both flats owners. It had a 999 yr lease and peppercorn rent of £25. So it's possible to be both.

A share of freehold will always come with a leasehold. The problem was that the freehold option was taken away so trying to sell a leasehold as a freehold just because there’s a peppercorn rent isn’t entirely accurate. We’ve withdrawn our offer and the estate agent has put it back on, again incorrectly stating that it’s a share of freehold. Honestly the property market in this country sucks!