Buying the freehold on my house

Some_randomer

My house is a leasehold which I pay a something like 8 euro ground rent every quarter to a land securities company. They send letters every year saying the the freehold for the house is available to purchase. The last letter quoted me a price of 568 euro and they say I can pay over the phone with a credit card.

My question is - do I need to get a lawyer involved or is it ok to just go ahead and buy over the phone by credit card? Do the deeds need to be changed or anything like that?

TIA

jonnybravo

Don't know much about it but I'd get a solicitor involved to make sure its okay. There's a lot of scams going around.

spaceHopper

That sounds like a scam I'd talk to a solicitor

JuliusCaesar

I don't think it's a scam.

Most old properties are leasehold rather than freehold - the leases being for 999 years or so. The lease amount is often fixed, and can be miniscule in modern terms, and so often the agents involved do not chase up amounts owing as it costs more to do so than it would bring in. Leasehold in my understanding is that you own the buildings, but rent the land on which it's built - so it's known as Ground Rent. Freehold is when you own the buildings and the land. It seems to have been an old scheme where you could sell a property and continue to earn money from it! So only a scam in that sense :-).

Here's a link to Citizens Advice on Ground Rent.

jonnybravo

JuliusCaesar wrote: »

I don't think it's a scam.

Most old properties are leasehold rather than freehold - the leases being for 999 years or so. The lease amount is often fixed, and can be miniscule in modern terms, and so often the agents involved do not chase up amounts owing as it costs more to do so than it would bring in. Leasehold in my understanding is that you own the buildings, but rent the land on which it's built - so it's known as Ground Rent. Freehold is when you own the buildings and the land. It seems to have been an old scheme where you could sell a property and continue to earn money from it! So only a scam in that sense :-).

Here's a link to Citizens Advice on Ground Rent.

I'd never heard of anyone actually paying the yearly rent though. I have heard of a few scams where people have been asked for it all right. For safety of mind I'd ask a solicitor anyways.

Claw Hammer

JuliusCaesar wrote: »

I don't think it's a scam.

Most old properties are leasehold rather than freehold - the leases being for 999 years or so. The lease amount is often fixed, and can be miniscule in modern terms, and so often the agents involved do not chase up amounts owing as it costs more to do so than it would bring in. Leasehold in my understanding is that you own the buildings, but rent the land on which it's built - so it's known as Ground Rent. Freehold is when you own the buildings and the land. It seems to have been an old scheme where you could sell a property and continue to earn money from it! So only a scam in that sense :-).

Here's a link to Citizens Advice on Ground Rent.

There are many leasehold properties and before there was heavy inflation the right to the income from the ground lease was quite substantial. Some leases on small houses were the equivalent of the average weekly industrial wage payable per year. Had the rents been indexed a 3 bed semi could well be paying hundreds of euro per year. The owners of land allowed builders to build provided they were given the ground rent. Portfolios of ground rents were thus created and provided an income for the owner and his successors.

There is however a common scam now occurring where individuals who do not own land write to owners of houses claiming to be entitled to the ground rent and collect money from them. They also offer to sell the freehold, which they do not own. Many of these companies when pressed will clam up and the bills stop coming.
The o/p should be wary.

Kelly06

Anyone in this position should make searches in the land registry to see what if anything is registered ( in most cases there will be a free hold folio) you can then find out who the owner of the freehold is from there!

ezra_pound

Kelly06 wrote: »

Anyone in this position should make searches in the land registry to see what if anything is registered ( in most cases there will be a free hold folio) you can then find out who the owner of the freehold is from there!

It's very unlikely that this land is in the land registry. It's almost certainly dealt with in the registry of deeds.

qt3.14

I thought ground rents etc were all unenforceable these days?

Kelly06

ezra_pound wrote: »

It's very unlikely that this land is in the land registry. It's almost certainly dealt with in the registry of deeds.

A quick 5 minute search will show. Some head folios are registered land with the leases themselves registered in the ROD. It can't hurt for the op to make enquiries it's also free!

Claw Hammer

qt3.14 wrote: »

I thought ground rents etc were all unenforceable these days?

New ground rents can't be created and most existing ones can be bought out by the tenant. Until the tenants buys it out they are enforceable. It is often not economic to do so. I have never heard of a quarterly one either.

absolutegroove

Claw Hammer wrote: »

New ground rents can't be created and most existing ones can be bought out by the tenant. Until the tenants buys it out they are enforceable. It is often not economic to do so. I have never heard of a quarterly one either.

What happens if a person does not buy out the freehold?

Claw Hammer

absolutegroove wrote: »

What happens if a person does not buy out the freehold?

They remain liable for the ground rent and when the lease is up they will only be entitled to a new lease on paying 1/8 of the market value of the property to the landlord.

Uno my Uno.

Very unusual to have ground rents being demanded and even more unusual to pay them.

OP if you wish to buy out the Freehold you should see your Solicitor, whilst not usually a difficult process it can throw up complications and is a legal transaction.