Selling a lease property

[LouiG123]

How fast have any of you taken to complete from accepting a offer on a lease property?

I sold a leasehold flat last year - 11 weeks from offer to exchange. There was no chain either side and there were no issues with the lease - long enough, minimal ground rent and reasonable service charge. It was in a well maintained small development and only 2 floors so none of the problems that can crop up with higher rise properties.

This is good to know as all the above applied for us.

@Karmatime what level of service charge do you consider to be reasonable? I am considering a leasehold property in a nice small development and I find the idea of paying a service charge so that I never have to worry about mowing the grass, cleaning the gutters etc as quite attractive. We are currently in a freehold house and are frankly a bit crap at these kinds of ongoing maintenance tasks. The service charge is £3500 per year and I don't really know whether that's a normal sort of level.

£3500 per year in service charge sounds a lot. Does the building have lifts? They are expensive to maintain. Is there a sink fund ? It could be worth it if you know where the money is going.

@YireosDodeAver £3600 seems high to me. Mine was £1800. There was no lift or concierge but gardens were well maintained, external maintenance and decor and internal communal areas decorated periodically. There wasn’t a cleaner as the design was such that only 2 people shared a hallway so we cleaned ourselves. It also covered building insurance and a sink fund. In over 20 years I was not asked to make an additional contribution.

3k sounds a lot Avoid Communal
heating Time it takes depends on
how easily the sols can get the info from M company

Oh gosh ours is £80p/m but we have gardeners and cleaners weekly.

I guess it depends how many flats are in the block and how much land. We have a large garden. And area, ours was very cheap compared to some we viewed

Mine was in London zone 2, 24 flats in total and pretty but not huge communal gardens. I guess it’s only reasonable relative to the area. There have been loads of new builds over the years as it’s near the Elizabeth line and service charges on those are £££££! The service charge and fact that the ground rent was fixed at £150 ended up being a selling point as mortgage lenders are increasingly wary to lend on flats with increasing ground rents.

Certain things may be on the lease which may be extra, eg inside, has,to be done every 5 years, when it does not

I've sold it's just the how long it takes now

In terms of how long, a lot depends on the solicitors, yours and the buyer’s and how quickly enquires are dealt with. Have you applied for the management pack? That can take a few weeks. Some local councils are slower than others for searches too. I would have thought that it would all be quicker this year than last as there’s less activity overall in the housing market but perhaps I’m being too logical!
We bought a share of freehold property this year, no chain and cash buyers, it was 8 weeks from offer to exchange.

We have all the management pack and the deeds and land registry etc. all answers to all questions too

One attempt to sell leasehold took 9 months, slow solicitors on both sides, slow management company, slow freeholder and both us and buyers didn’t chase much. Then buyer walked away on the day of exchange. We learned our lesson and next buyer we aggressively chased every step of the process, so it took 4.5 months from offer to exchange. We also had management pack and other paperwork ready from previous attempt. Buyer was slow, didn’t pay for searches for 2 or 3 months, midway decided to apply for cheaper mortgage, etc.

It sounds like you have everything ready your end so it will depend on the buyer. Do they have their mortgage offer? Are they getting a survey? If they are also motivated to move quickly then it should be a smooth process and take no more than 3 months.

Survey was done within 4 days (yesterday) buyers keen to get in too