Hi, just wondering if anybody has any experience or insights with this.
Currently in the process of buying a leasehold flat, we are done with all the surveys, searches etc but it is currently stalled as we are waiting for the basement to be included in the lease. We put our offer in for the flat back in September, and have been ready since January.
Originally when buying, we were lead to believe the basement was part of the sale, as it was included in the floorplans/ square footage, but our solicitor brought up it was actually not included and we needed to either have it included, or we would need to look at having the property revalued with the lesser sq footage and basement not included.
Our seller offered to pay for the basement to be included in exchange for us not reducing our offer, and was told it would only take a few weeks. They have paid the freeholder etc and from what I know have come to an agreement. However, we are several months later and have found out recently the application for the basement to HM Land Registry hasn't been sent off, and that we have been waiting for the freeholder to sign for all this time!
The estate agent & seller's solicitor & the freeholder's secretary have been chasing up the freeholder for a couple of weeks now (and for the months before the freeholder has apparently been either on holiday, ill and now out of contact, so not sure what is going on there). We literally cannot progress without this one person's signature!
At this point, is there anything we can do here other than wait for the freeholder to show up and sign? We have already threatened to reduce our offer if we miss the stamp duty deadline, and also suggested we are likely to pull out if action isn't taken soon.
Thoughts? Is this freeholder going to be a pain point for the foreseeable future?