leasehold

[therubster]

hi,

im asking this question on behalf of my partner and i appolgise if im not very clear as i do not know much about what she has asked me to ask.

my partner has owned her home for 7 years. she has to pay a fixed sum every year for the land which still has 23 years left to run.{ im not to sure if she said freehold or leasehold as i dont quite understand how it works }

she said that after owning her house for a period of 2 years she is entitled to purchase the land from the owner for a fixed sum. she has written numerous letters to the land owner asking for the purchase price of the land and that she wishes to purchase it. despite all of the letters the owner still will not give her a price and keeps sending anual letters about the fee even though she has paid it and has a receipt for the payments.

she has spoken to the company who owns the land and they have told her that they do not have to sell her the land if they do not want to and that they wish to remain the owners of the land.

there is a lot of redeveloping going on in the surrounding area and developers are buying land for high prices and my partner thinks that this may be why they will not sell the freehold/ leasehold to her.

it says in her mortage agreement that she is entiltled to purchase the leasehold after 2 years but the company is refusing to sell.

can they do this or are they breaking the law.

any advise would be much aprecited.

[cassa333]

I must say that I am supprised that anyone bought a place with only 30 years left on the lease!!! It would be almost impossible to get a morgage which generaly want a minimum of 60 yrs to run.

As far as I know your not entitled to buy the freehold just because you want to. It is slightly different for flats though.

You can negotiate to buy an extention of the lease so that you have it for longer.

[therubster]

hi cassa333.

i forgot to explain, my partners house is mortage free as she was left it by her father. he has owned the house since 1973 so there would have been plenty of time on the lease when he purchased the property.

my partner has also found a document from the land owner that clearly states that she is entitled to purchase the land from them if she wishes after 2 years.

she is going to contact them on monday and see what they say once we provide them with a copy of the document. if not then she will just apply to extend the lease.

mant thanks for your advise.

[therubster]

in my first post i said my partner had a mortage agreement when she is actually mortage free.

the details of the mortage papers are the ones from when her father purchased the property and the document from the land owners is also from the same time.

when my partner spoke to the land owners they have said that they would like a copy of the document as they have nothing in their files but if the document is correct then they will look into selling the land so fingers crossed.

sorry to all if i have been a bit confusing.

thanks.

[cassa333]

Good luck.

You might have a shock on how much you have to pay for the land though (unless the fixed sum is stated) as well as the cost of extending the lease.

You will obviously have checked if the 'right to buy' the freehold passed onto your partner rather than just with her father.

[therubster]

hi cassa333

in the agreement is states that the right to buy passes on to a new owner but is only activated after the new owner after the 2 year limit.

the stated fixed amount for the land is �8000.

we have a meeting with the land owner on the 16/10/08 so fingers crossed.

i will post an update once we have had the meeting.

thanks