"dennis@home" wrote in message
eb.com...
On 06/06/2016 09:21, Jethro_uk wrote:
On Sun, 05 Jun 2016 22:55:33 +0100, RJH wrote:

On 05/06/2016 14:06, R D S wrote:
Has anyone bought their freehold?

My shop is leasehold, I pay 57p every 6 months and the bill always
includes a letter reminding me that if I want to break wind, I need to
ask them first and enclose a cheque for £120 for which they will check
the lease and advise whether I am permitted to do so.

So i'd like to buy the lease at least on the shop. Has anyone done this
and if so how was the process and what did it cost?

Value approx 70k, 850 yrs remaining on the lease.


ISTR that, for my house (similarly low rent and long lease), the owner
of the freehold wanted £500 plus the legal costs.

One of the snags is that the purchaser has to pay the
freeloaders^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hholders legall costs too. SO irrespective of the
value of the freehold, there's a baseline of c. £2k.

I get where the OP is coming from. We bought a leasehold house, and one
of the covenants dictated which insurer we used. We could use a different
one, but the lease insisted it be approved by the freeholder. AT *our*
expense (£60). Which meant we paid over the odds for insurance for 10
years.

I also sympathise with the OP trying to get good advice - they will find
(as has already happened) any mention of freehold purchase will be
assumed to refer to flats.

We were trying to buy our freehold from the day we moved in. The
roadblock we hit was calculating what it was *worth*. If you want to go
down the proper route, it involves you - and the freeholder - arguing
over what a surveyor says the property is worth as a starting point.
(Guess who pays for the freeholders surveyor ????!!!!). So you are
looking at having to spend some cash upfront.

This leaves a gap in the market for a class of "freehold consultants" who
offer to handle the negotiations for you. We were contacted by one who
claimed to be "in the area". Unfortunately the fact *he* came to *us*
meant he could never pass the smell test, and we never used him, despite
his helpfully reminding us of his existence.

Then one day - out of the blue - the doorbell rings. It was the
freeholder asking if we were interested in buying the freehold. We
chatted and a sum was agreed which seemed about right, so we got a
solicitor and bought it. SWMBO had previously spoken with him on the
phone, and I have to say he was as sleazy in person as she had described
him.

I also will never shake the feeling the freehold consultant and
freeholder were in collusion. Given the tortuous and opaque nature of the
process, it's easy to envisage a scheme whereby chummy boy pretends to
"negotiate" with the freeholder and get the grateful homeowner to cough
up over the odds without going through (and paying for) the surveyor
bunfight.


There is a law that says the freehold has to be offered and at a maximum
rate of 22 times the ground rent.

no there isn't

the value of a lease is the sum of the amortised value of the GR PLUS the
value of the reversion interest

Whilst it is possible to express the amortised value of the GR as a multiple
the reversion value is a function of the total property value and often
there is no relationship at all between GR and property value

tim