Contracts for house purchase state - held under lease - implications?

Baby01032012

Hi all,

Went sale agreed on house early December. Got copy of contract from solicitor other day..due to close end of February.

One item that concerns me is it states...held under lease dated xxxxx 1963.... For a term of 999 years from xxxxx 1962 at a yearly rent of xxxx.

I had always assumed the property I was purchasing was freehold. To my limited knowledge I though only commercial property could be leasehold. I will ask my solicitor but wanted to get peoples opinions on buying a leashold in what will be my family home.

Questions like why was it never converted to freehold , can it be done as condition of sale or sometime in future, is original lessor from 1962 still in business.. Is ground rent mentioned in £ and shillings ever been paid or being paid. These are questions for my solicitor but want people's opinions on any concerns I should have in buying a leasehold even though it is a long leasehold.

Many thanks.

MouseTail

No, most houses are actually leasehold. Check with your solicitor, but ground rent, such as it is, is very rarely collected.

If you want to buy out the leasehold, although most don't bother as it makes no difference whatsover, it should cost no more than a couple of thousand.

Ive never heard of purchase of leasehold being a condition of sale. I doubt the vendor would agree to that.

bluemartin

I recently purchased a leasehold house with a 500 year lease. During the purchase it emerged that the Landlord was unknown and a Declaration to that effect was furnished on completion. My question is if the landlord is unknown, how can I go about acquiring freehold status on it. I know it doesnt matter too much with a lease as long as this, it as good as freehold.

MrDerp

bluemartin wrote: »

I recently purchased a leasehold house with a 500 year lease. During the purchase it emerged that the Landlord was unknown and a Declaration to that effect was furnished on completion. My question is if the landlord is unknown, how can I go about acquiring freehold status on it. I know it doesnt matter too much with a lease as long as this, it as good as freehold.

Have a read of this
http://www.landregistry.ie/eng/About_Us/Ground_Rent_services/

Essentially you or your solicitor can apply to the county registrar to have leasehold converted to freehold.

I may be wrong, but from memory you essentially will pay a very small 4 figure sum, and the county registrar puts that aside in case anyone ever did come looking for ground rent owed.

bluemartin

Thanks Mr Derp

Little Miss Cutie

bluemartin wrote: »

I recently purchased a leasehold house with a 500 year lease. During the purchase it emerged that the Landlord was unknown and a Declaration to that effect was furnished on completion. My question is if the landlord is unknown, how can I go about acquiring freehold status on it. I know it doesnt matter too much with a lease as long as this, it as good as freehold.

We are in the process of buying a house which is under a lease. Speaking to the solicitor in Friday about this, he said it is a very straightforward procedure.

There is a form to be lodged for x number of days and the landlord can object ( if LL is unknown I understand it is still the same), assuming no objection we "buy out" the lease. In our case the cost is expected to be less than €100

bluemartin

why is the cost so low for you? I am expecting it to be around 1500 to 2000 euro.

Little Miss Cutie

I think the cost is lower as there is less than 100 years left on our lease......

bluemartin

I was thinking if the lanlord is not around or remains unfound where does the money go? Is it kept in trust by the courts in case he does come back?

Little Miss Cutie

That one I don't know - I am sure your solicitor will know the answer to these questions.
One thing I haven't checked yet is the cost of the solicitors time - that is next on my list of inquiries.

bluemartin

I was thinking if the lanlord is not around or remains unfound where does the money go? Is it kept in trust by the courts in case he does come back?

K.Flyer

There is lots of information about ground rents and buying them out here...

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/housing/owning_a_home/home_owners/ground_rent.html