Ground rent issue holding up sale of duplex apartment

Tooosey

I am the owner of a Duplex apartment (1 below me) that was built by Fingal CoCo in 2005. It's sale is currently being held up at contract stage due to ground rent term issue. There are 85 years + on it with buyer's Solicitor wanting it changed to 999.

Would anyone have any suggestions that might get this across the line to the satisfaction of the buyer. By satisfaction I mean them being able to buy the apartment with the term changed or maybe without the term changed but with the knowledge that it can easily be done.

Any thoughts welcome and appreciated.

L1011

Your solicitor will need to advise you here. An extended lease may be possible to negotiate but it's unlikely to be either automatic or free

DubCount

Could you buy out the ground rent, or agree a price for buying it out and adjust your selling price?

Tooosey

DubCount wrote: »

Could you buy out the ground rent, or agree a price for buying it out and adjust your selling price?

I don't think I can as it is an apartment.

Dolbhad

Tooosey wrote: »

I am the owner of a Duplex apartment (1 below me) that was built by Fingal CoCo in 2005. It's sale is currently being held up at contract stage due to ground rent term issue. There are 85 years + on it with buyer's Solicitor wanting it changed to 999.

Would anyone have any suggestions that might get this across the line to the satisfaction of the buyer. By satisfaction I mean them being able to buy the apartment with the term changed or maybe without the term changed but with the knowledge that it can easily be done.

Any thoughts welcome and appreciated.

A lease has to be at least 70 years to be good marketable title as they say legally. So if your term lease is around the 70 years mark, it will be hard to sell as the next buyer will definitely have an issue next time. They won’t bring this on themselves and their bank won’t lend on it.

It’s normal for apartment leases to be 999 years so I’m surprised yours wasn’t. Was the solicitor acting for you now the solicitor who bought it first day as even buying it in 2005 would have made this a possible issue when selling.

Also Did you get a lease or sub lease? A sub lease is carved for the lease, usually a shorter period of time so it could be that. I would think this is fixable and since it’s the council, they would just extend the lease. However that will be slowing going and I think any way to resolve this will take time. But your solicitor is the best person to advise on this.

Tooosey

Turns out while my house was purchased through the affordable scheme there was a small (5%) shared ownership element. I have not fully figured it out but I think once I pay the shared bit then somehow the 999 comes back into play. Any further insight into this would be appreciated?

Dolbhad

Tooosey wrote: »

Turns out while my house was purchased through the affordable scheme there was a small (5%) shared ownership element. I have not fully figured it out but I think once I pay the shared bit then somehow the 999 comes back into play. Any further insight into this would be appreciated?

I think that’s a sublease. It might have been the council under the scheme got the lease and assigned it to the current owner for a shorter period of time. You’ll buy it out and get the remaining 999 years. The sellers solicitor will deal with the council. Council may need to sign documents so that may slow things down