Leasehold title

My bf and myself are in the process of buying our first house. We have just found out that the title on the house is leasehold with 85 years left. We have been told that we buy the house as is so we can't put into the contract that the sale is subject to the title being changed to freehold. We really want to buy this house as its good price & location & we do not want to have to start over again. We would be looking to hold onto this house for approx. 5 years so could we run into big problems trying to sell.

Could someone please advise me as to what kind of risk we are taking, everyone we ask says we are mad to go for it yet have no real knowledge of buying a property with leasehold title.

Has your solicitor advised you of the possible implications?

All he said was we may have trouble when we sell try to sell it on because the nearer the lease is to 70 years the harder it is for a potential buyer to get a mortgage. We asked him if he would buy it and he said yes.

To be honest i don't feel like he is working for us and just wants to close and get it out of the way.

I thought that all leashold owner occupiers had a legal right to buy out the ground rent on their houses? See .

If you own a leasehold property, you must pay a ground rent to your landlord because he or she owns the ground it is built on. The amount of ground rent paid varies. Often this landlord will be your local authority, for instance, in Dublin, it may be Dublin City Council.

Owning the freehold interest in a property means that you own the land and buildings (if any) outright. There is no period of years attached to the ownership. Ground rent does not affect freehold property.

The has a scheme that allows leasehold owners to buy out their ground rent and become outright owners of their property. This scheme is known as the Ground Rents Purchase Scheme.

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If your solicitor is not doing the business for you then make your concerns known to them and/or switch to another one if necessary and possible.

We are getting our solicitor to find out who owns the leasehold on the property and get the ball rolling on buying out the leasehold but does anyone know what problems we might face?

Can I suggest that if your own solicitor will not properly advise you that you switch solicitors? And find someone who will properly advise you so that you can decide based on informed advice.

Mostly ( but not always) it is possible to purchase the freehold interest. But it can be tedious - particularly if its local authority - and can take time which will be charged for.

mf

Yes we may have to do that and we have been told that it could cost approx €2,000 in solicitors fees to change the title.

I work in an Auctioneers and we have a property on our books at the moment. The title is leasehold and it's held under a 999 year lease. Apparently it's quite easy to purchase the freehold interest. The freehold interest belongs to the Local City Council and I have been advised that it would cost approx. €800 to purchase it from them. It may not be as difficult/costly as you think.

It should not cost €2,000 or the colour of it.

At the moment, all you really need is definite legal advice confirming that you have a legal entitlement to buy out the ground rent (i.e. acquire the freehold of your property). You could then easily handle this yourselves through the land registry after completion of your purchase.

These applications take a long time to go through, and a fair solicitors fee (of circa €635 plus V.A.T plus outlay) can seem very large in relation to the value of the transaction. This can leave clients (wrongly) feeling aggrieved, and for a relatively unprofitable piece of work, which is why many solicitors will try to avoid this work if possible. It seems that your solicitor has not properly communicated this to you - as with so many complaints against advisers of all sorts, the lack of communication is often the real issue.

If you have a property on a 999 year lease, there is no real need to buy out the freehold at all, though people still do as they don't like the notion of having a landlord.

MOB said:

If you have a property on a 999 year lease, there is no real need to buy out the freehold at all, though people still do as they don't like the notion of having a landlord.

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Just to clarify Dee's lease has 85 years left to run.

"At the moment, all you really need is definite legal advice confirming that you have a legal entitlement to buy out the ground rent (i.e. acquire the freehold of your property). You could then easily handle this yourselves through the land registry after completion of your purchase."


Thanks MOB that is one thing we will definitely get our Solicitor to do and thanks for the advice on the cost.

Do the following apply?

http://www.landregistry.ie/index.asp?docID=228