Leasehold- have we made a huge mistake?

[Creativebee]

We put an offer in on a house last week, it was between two but we decided to slightly increase our budget and put the offer in for this house. We knew it was leasehold but I always assumed that leasehold meant that the ground/land the property was sitting on was the lease part not the actual property. I tried to ask EA but they have no idea and said all they know is that it’s leasehold 🙄. I’ve purchased the registry title for both the property and the associated land, both say leasehold, this is how it is written:
A: Property Register
No price recorded
This register describes the land and estates comprised in this title.
I am assuming where it says estate that means the house itself?
DH and me are panicking because from what we’ve read you can’t even do a loft conversion, add a conservatory or alter the property without prior approval from the freeholder. Have we just lost out on the other property (the other one we were interested in has now SSTC) and put an offer in for a house we could do nothing with? I know we can pull out as it’s only an offer but we really don’t want to. Can someone please give some clarification?

Ask your conveyancer/solicitor. That's their job.

Or pay for advice. That £100 will be worth it.

Get legal advice. No other option.

It will depend on the terms of the lease. But generally leaseholders have to ask permission from the freeholder for any changes.

It’s also,harder to get mortgages on leasehold properties and takes longer because there are certain circumstances - breach of lease terms - in which the freeholder can take over the lease which mortgage companies don’t like. Is there any ground rent/service charge? Are there any communal grounds?

There is rent of £20, there are no communal grounds. We were under the impression that mainly flats were leaseholds but after some research we’ve noticed that a lot of houses are too. I’ve emailed a solicitor today but I won’t get a reply until they open on Monday. The whole thing has just put a damper on what was meant to be so exciting and not being able to understand the wording on the registry title is stressing me out.

Get legal advice but honestly the opinion of my solicitor DH is don’t touch leasehold property with a barge pole.

If it's a new(ish) build, it's standard. You can buy the lease for £2500 then you don't have to worry. I bought a new build 8 years ago, and bought the lease from the builder a few years later. The whole estate was sold in a leasehold basis, but lots of people have bought their leases now.
I don't think builders are allowed to sell leasehold new builds now except in a few circumstances.

You need to get advice to find out the facts. A lot of people on here will be along to say 'don't go near a leasehold' but it's pretty standard for most properties to be leasehold in many parts of the UK so they can't just be avoided... I'm in a leasehold area and never heard of anyone having any issues ever, we all just pay our £12 ground rent each year.

Also they generally aren't expensive to buy if you didn't want the worry, my parents paid £600 for theirs a few years ago.

Short particulars of the lease(s) (or under-lease(s)) under which the land is held:
Date : 20 June 1978
Term: 999 years from 20 June 1978
So definitely not a new build. What words would tell me if the building itself is leasehold?

100% agree to get legal advice before going further. My SIL owns a leased house but pays something like £5 a year in ground rent and has the option to buy the lease for about £500 but never bothered because it never impacted any work she has wanted doing to the house. However when we were looking at properties one we loved turned out to have ground rent chargers of £80 a month and was owned by a company with a bad reputation for altering ground rent charges as they pleased, selling the land on to other companies and charging homeowners for extensions etc. we dodged a massive bullet.

@whatatime what about altering the property, doesn’t that cause issues?

Don't panic yet. About half the properties in the city I am from are leasehold and it doesn't cause any issues at all. Is it a Victorian terrace? Are you in South Yorkshire?

@Geneticsbunny no it’s a bungalow in the Northwest

No, not sure it even crosses anyone's mind when they do work to their houses to be honest, it certainly never crossed my mind when we got our extension!

70% of the houses here (Victorian terraces) are leasehold.

You pay £3 a year to the Duchy of Somewhere, if they can be arsed to send a letter.

It’s not a big deal. Totally different here to the £200pm charges you hear about on blocks of flats.

@Creativebee just seen you say NW, that's where I am (Fylde coast) if that's any reassurance.

When you buy a leasehold property you are essentially buying a long term rental. At the end of the term the ownership of the property returns to the owner of the leasehold. I would not touch one with a barge pole. You also haven’t mentioned the length of time left on the lease which is a very important factor.

@LadyTemperance Term: 999 years from 20 June 1978

many smaller houses can be leasehold ? Ex council

@whatatime 29 miles inland from yourself so not too far

We bought an ex local authority leasehold flat.
No alterations internally were allowed without permission from the freeholder. We rented it out.

Just before we sold, the freeholder held a meeting to tell us they intended to upgrade the flats, replacement double glazing, solar panels, communal areas to be painted and upgraded etc. It would have landed us with a bill of £12,500 payable over ten years!!

We would have had no choice but to pay. Big relief that we sold just in time to get out of that obligation. I will never buy leasehold again.
Caveat Emptor - Buyer beware!

We are live in the northwest, in a leasehold house. Extremley common in our area and a different set up to flat leaseholds. We pay £80 a year, never asked for permission to make any changes!. We've had 3 letters recently to buy the leasehold for £3000 but as we dont intend on staying here theres no point. The leasehold company must be desperate to get the cash!.

@Ilikewinter in your shoes I would take professional advice. It may be difficult to sell if all other houses in your area have taken up this option. It may also add more than the 3k to your property value.

A 999 year lease is good for length. You need to understand what the ground rent is, and whether there's a mechanism for it being increased, and then whether there are rules about what kinds of changes you can make. The really problematic leases tend to be more recent ones where the ground rent has big automatic increases in it, or even worse, doubles every so many years. A lease that started in 1978 is much more likely to be fine.

That’s not strictly true. If you don’t own the freehold you do technically need to ask for permission. Many people don’t and many freeholders don’t care, but a friend of my mum received a legal letter from her freeholder having done “unauthorised” work on the property. Not sure how it got resolved but I know it was a PITA for her.