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?

Loads of houses built on ‘old estates’ (Duchy of something) have a long lease on the land and very little impact. Some of the most sought after areas / houses in London are like this.

And even for leasehold flats (different issues) are the starter homes (and beyond) for literally millions of people, with no problems.

It all depends on the terms of lease and type of building / management.

So, ask your solicitor, and I hope the answers are reassuring.

Threads like this always make me laugh, if everyone took MN's advice at least 3/4 of the houses in my town would be empty.

Johnsnowsghost im sorry to hear youre going through this. The feeling when you do get out is incredible. Hang in there and I hope your sale goes well

I would never buy a leasehold property

Some of the nightmare stories on this thread of being landed with big bills for works relate to leasehold flats which are very different and this is not likely to happen with a leasehold house.

If you know who holds the freehold (as others have said it's sometimes Duchy of something, or something Properties) it's worth googling them or asking in local Facebook groups what issues people have had with them, if any. Otherwise be guided by your solicitor.

See if you can buy the lease.

I'm in a similarly agreed property and the terms, and £20 payment were exactly the same as yours.

Wanted to add an extension so wrote to them asking to buy the lease and they came back with a price (2.5k that covered all the admin and legal fees too). Was very easy although this was during covid and took an age to go though land registry.

A family member was able to buy their leasehold in the NW , he said it was something to do with possible old mine workings or something when they were built . Having said that is was leasehold when they bought it and there was a conservatory already.

Our house was listed as leasehold when we bought it, but apparently had the right to be converted to freehold, the solicitor converted it for us, it was a paper exercise and didnt cost anything.

Don't buy leashold houses. The government have now banned this going forward on new builds - and for good reasons. Plus the existing stock of leasholds are harder to sell and will devalue quicker during the current price correction.

Not all leasehold house leases are the same though @DrySherry . I’d consider buying one set up 40+ years ago but not one of the newer ones.

Wow, I had no idea there are leasehold houses. I was looking for a house in central London on RM and I am sure all the houses I looked at were freehold.

OP, please get advice from a solicitor. In your shoes, I would also take a second opinion from a second solicitor.

I only know about leasehold flats and leasehold flats with a share of the freehold and have participated in decision making for the freeholder in the latter.

I simply don’t understand why people come on these sorts of threads to ask legal questions in the hope (I assume) that somebody answering may be a Conveyancer who has the necessary knowledge without knowing all the facts, seeing the paperwork and doing research. Go and speak to whoever you have appointed to do your conveyancing and obtain their advice which you are paying for. If they are crap, dis- instruct them and find another firm that knows what they’re doing. Please do not rely on amateur legal opinions.
I am a licensed conveyancer by the way and even so I would only give a limited opinion without actually looking at the paperwork first.

100% @IOnlycreatedaccountforthispost although I don't know what their motivation is. I simply say nothing on those threads.

I forgot to add it is exactly why the EA said he/she didn't know- or didn't want to answer. Why should he/she?

I also avoid mortgage Qs especially because I was many years ago given wrong advice by a broker and spent 5 years understanding how mortgages work and spoke to many different brokers and lenders. I give zero advice as I am not regulated to do so and see people being given wrong advice on MN or being given wrong hopes which will end up costing them thousands of pounds many years down the line. I just avoid the threads.

100% agree with...

I apologise if I have offended anyone, that was not my intention at all. We have only had our offer accepted and not at the stage of instructing anyone as yet, of course, once we get to that point we will definitely get advice and only go with the advise given by our solicitors. I only added the post as both me and my husband were stressed, wondering if we made a mistake, some of the points made on this thread have meant we now have further questions to ask which we had not thought about. We are only at the very very early stages, I guess we were just hoping for some opinions but we know these are just opinions. Again I apologise if I have offended, I don't think I can remove this post but if anyone else does, please let me know and I will remove it.

Just pull out if you re unhappy. It doesn't have to be a massive drama. Throw your offer in to the agent on the other property. See what happens

I view it as signposting people to what they need to look into more. Of course no one’s going to expect proper legal advice here.

300 acres of central London is owned by the Duke of Westminster. All those houses as well as flats are leasehold.

@Mirabai

I didn't want to be too specific with the area, but the houses I was looking at were in South Kensington and Chelsea and RM clearly stated Freehold. I certainly would not buy a leasehold house.

I'd move on and get a Freehold house, you don't want to be beholden to anyone else.

Absolutely this.

OP if you really like the house then you could tell the seller your offer still stands,
on the proviso they buy the freehold first and sell the house to you as a freehold property.

If they won’t do this, then Google the news articles about why the government has now banned the sale of new houses as leasehold, and then decide if you still want to proceed.

V v common if you’re in the NW and nothing to worry about if it’s an ‘old’ lease rather than a new build. Technically you need to ask leaseholder permission for structural changes but often ignored. We didn’t bother when we extended our old house but needed permission when we sold it. Think it cost around £1k. You also get the rights to buy the freehold after a while and with a 999 year lease it doesn’t cost much. The ones to steer clear of are newer builds with costs for maintaining communal grounds or roads and doubling of lease charges every 5 years. Avoid those.

generally pp mentioning £10k+ charges are leasehold flats with large maintenance costs which is not the case you’re in

Ah the buyers pulled out today :( gutted. Now to get it back on the market for less and take the hit, in probably the worst time possible to be selling!

Oh shit, really feel for you. Hope the next buyer is round the corner and that the price reduction helps. Take care of yourself, its hard work. But so worth it

Thank you :) the sellers of the property we want to buy have given us two weeks to find a new buyer 😱
I have one viewing booked in for next week, booked a couple of hours after the ad went live so fingers crossed.