Leasehold - Affects me how?

Grandparents bought a new build house in the eighties where the whole estate was leasehold but no management company. They were able to buy the freehold some years later for about £1K.
 
valve90210 said:
It is a perfect example (ok maybe fairly extreme granted), of exactly what can happen, the freeholder can suddenly drop things on you like this at any time as the land is theirs!!!

You say he's just been unlucky, yes true he has but at the same time, if he had purchased a freehold property that would definitely not come up! ;)

We had similar issues in the flat we used to live in, 4 days before christmas one year we got a letter through informing us of intended works to the roof, as it was only a block of four flats and we were first floor, we didn't know if the cost would be shared with all four flats or just the two it affected, the total cost was estimated at £10,000 meaning we would have to find either £2,500 or potentially £5,000 if the work went ahead!!!

Was a hell of a shock and the timing was awful as the office was shut for xmas so we had two weeks of not knowing and stress before we could even talk to anyone about it!!!

As luck would have it the economic downturn meant such projects were shelved and it never happened but the potential being there for it is horrible!!!
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Wouldn't repairs/work carried out to the roof or structure of the building not be covered under your normal leasehold charges.

We recently looked at a flat and the current owner confirmed their windows and even their boiler had been replaced over he last few years under the leasehold agreement.
 
I believe a similar ground rent thing exists here, but anyone paying ground rent can buy it out on their property.
As far as I am aware they made it illegal to sell any new builds with ground rent attached anymore, and were moving away from the faffing around with the whole rental gubbins now.
If someone buys a house they should own the land, and that's the way it works here now with new builds.

Renting a house for the full value for a period of 99 years sounds like madness to me.
 
Only new builds these days that come leasehold are flats and apartments. But these clever house builder companies have a way of getting round it by forcing everyone to pay into a management company for the housing estate.

One near me where the residents have to pay nearly a grand a year just for someone to come round and cut the grass on the public places (which the council would do if adopted) and repaint the white lines on the parking spaces when needed. Madness.
 
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