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Post by bromptonaut on Nov 9, 2021 14:02:07 GMT
One for Espada maybe?
My son and his partner are in the early stages of house hunting. They're in Liverpool and are looking for a 3 place reasonably near her parents. They've looked at a few but they're finding fully 'done up' older places a bit expensive and don't really want a project house - neither are DIYers.
One they've come up with today is recent build leasehold. Looks OK and price is affordable.
I've previously given bargepole warnings about modern leaseholds. Rent escalators, service charges, fees to approve even minor alterations are amongst the issues I've pointed out.
Am I missing something are are there actual changes afoot which means the warnings of doom in, amongst other places, the Guardian's money pages might have changed.
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Post by Humph on Nov 9, 2021 14:11:47 GMT
Hmm, not sure I’d go down that route. I’ve “done up” a few houses over the years and even someone as inept and lazy as me can do most things required. Quite a lot of them really just need paint and something on the floor to make a significant improvement. B&Q level kitchens and bathrooms aren’t too expensive if required.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 9, 2021 14:19:24 GMT
No, nay, never. Buying your first home, The key word is "compromise", but not on freehold/leasehold for a house. Leasehold is usually a trap. You should strongly encourage them to accept one of the other compromises - i.e. condition or location. And of those, I'd strongly encourage them to take condition as the compromise. It is the only thing about any property which can be rectified, the ownership status and and location can not.
Nobody is a DIYer until they become one out of necessity. But of course they can always employ "a man" for the harder jobs.
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Post by Humph on Nov 9, 2021 14:22:08 GMT
Wot he said 👍
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Post by EspadaIII on Nov 9, 2021 18:07:56 GMT
OK... There is leasehold and there is leasehold. But if we are talking about a house built in the last 20 years then you may be up against unnecessarily greedy developers and investors screwing home buyers. The main area of being screwed apart from being promised to sell the freehold to a home buyer and then selling the house on a 125 year or maybe a 250 year lease instead was the concept of incorporating a ground rent which doubled every ten years. This was (and is) totally iniquitous and it would not have taken long for the annual rent (which may have started at £250pa) to become a very serious amount of money and a large proportion of the rental value, if you were going to rent it out to tenants. Eventually this became a national scandal and the Government did step in, in a way, a dragged a pledge out of the main developers that if a home owner asked, they would change the rent rise from doubling every ten years to rising by RPI every ten years. This was and is more manageable but not as nice the usual 999 year lease at £5pa fixed as happened in the 1930s. See the 'Pledge'So the first question to ask is, has the pledge been taken for the house in question and if not, can it be? The next question is how long is the lease? The 1967 Leasehold Enfranchisement Act comes into play and if there are less than 80 years unexpired the cost of forcing the freeholder to sell the freehold to the homeowner can be high due to marriage value (I need to explain that over a pint). If there are more than 80 years unexpired (and preferrably over 82 years for the reason that you must have owned the house for over two years before you can implement the provisions of the Act), then the cost of dragging the freehold from the freeholder are more reasonable. That is a quick and dirty summary. Any more detiails and I'll give more advice.... |
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Post by bromptonaut on Nov 11, 2021 14:12:26 GMT
Thanks Esp.
Based on my various perspectives as adviser, observer of the legal and consumer scene etc I'd differentiated between 'old' leasehold as in London or S.Wales and the sharp practices of modern developers.
Son recognises that we'd discussed this before and that I'd sent him an email with links to various sources none of which were positive.
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Post by EspadaIII on Nov 11, 2021 14:21:09 GMT
No probs...
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