Why Would Anyone Have A Leasehold?

[ToraToraTora]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy84g9822gro

Sounds mad to me.

[davebro3]

Millions of people are leaseholders.

I pay £60pm service charge. Includes buildings insurance, communal area cleaning & lighting, outside repairs/maintenance/redecoration, grass & hedge cutting, etc.

[Untitled]

you buy what you can afford and what's available. the vast majority of flats are leasehold so if a flat is what you can afford (or what you need) then that is what you'll buy.

the issue isn't people buying leaseholds. it is what these parasitic scumbag freehold companies are allowed to get away with. the previous government practically abandoned leaseholders and left them to the wolves.

[mushroom25]

if you want a flat in a larger block, you've pretty much no option than to accept it's leasehold as you'll only own the flat, not the building.

At one time in the Midlands, leasehold houses were very common and in general, the freeholds were originally retained by the developers. then in the 1980s many freeholds were sold off; the land on which my house is built was sold to an offshore company in Jersey who were almost impossible to deal with. I got out of that arrangement tout-de-suite, and now own outright.

[ToraToraTora]

11:22 you are ok for now dave but wait until they flog the freehold to some money grubbing outfit and it'll be like the lady in the article.

[ToraToraTora]

untitled: "the issue isn't people buying leaseholds. it is what these parasitic scumbag freehold companies are allowed to get away with. the previous government practically abandoned leaseholders and left them to the wolves." - agree with that, lets hope this government does something about the PSFCs. It's not just about what you can afford it's to do with the structure of the tenure in this country. There should be a free hold equivalent for flats for example but that's not simple in blocks with maintenance etc.

[davebro3]

I'm hoping for upcoming leasehold reforms to make lease extensions easier & more affordable and some restraint on excessive service charges. Been promised for years so I'm not holding my breath!

[Old_Geezer]

I bought my first place which was leasehold. Peppercorn rent. It was offered to me to buy the lease but the rent was so small that I declined for ages.  It was only when the lease ownership moved to a new lot who wanted to claim payments I'd already made that I decided it was beginning to prove a hassle so bought it, thus making the place freehold.

[brainiac]

About to be discussed on Jeremy Vine's Radio 2 show, at 1:05pm

[wolf63]

I had not heard of Leasehold properties until recently.  I don't think that they exist in Scotland.

I read about an old lady faced with a bill for many thousands of pounds that she knew nothing about.

[ToraToraTora]

so presumably flats are also freehold in Scotland, how does it work with blocks of flats with maintenance etc?

[bednobs]

"Why Would Anyone Have A Leasehold?"

once more the author shows an astonishing lack of understanding about ANYTHING that doesnt affect him in his millionnaire house or is outside of his own narrow experience

[wolf63]

TTT, 

it can get ugly.  In my last flat, there were four flats in the building.  Repairs were needed to be done to the roof.  One owner was a miserable, tight-fisted git and refused to pay his share.  It dragged on for a couple of years.

 

 

[chelle7272]

// how does it work with blocks of flats with maintenance etc?//

Owners pay a share towards communal costs in the usual way. 

[ToraToraTora]

14:14 my first property was a leasehold, thankfully it wasn't an ordeal for me. After that they have all been freehold. I asked the question because for the last 20 years at least it's been an absolute nightmare for leaseholds what with rip off land lords and cladding type issues etc. That would frighten me out of buying one now.

[barry1010]

Yesterday's Rip Off Britain covered this very well.

Scary

[Untitled]

the problem isn't leaseholds per se. they make sense for serviced apartment blocks etc. The issue is poor regulation to protect leaseholders from predatory freeholders. 
 

leaseholds were not a problem for decades... only now a particularly vile group of chancers has spotted an opportunity to bleed money out of people and are being permitted to do it.

[ToraToraTora]

untitled: "leaseholds were not a problem for decades... only now a particularly vile group of chancers has spotted an opportunity to bleed money out of people and are being permitted to do it." - yes fair comment, we need ideas to stop that.

[barry1010]

In last night's ROB, the ground rent went up from £25 per annum to over £1000.

 

There was an appeal to the Ombudsman and they not only in favour of the leaseholder but increased the ground rent.