Can county council refuse to sell leasehold?

CouncilLeasehold · 22-03-2023 09:20PM #1

I'm currently in the process of buying a house, and our solicitor has raised a concern that the council may refuse to sell us the leasehold so that we can convert it to a freehold. The lease has 88 years left, so it may become harder to sell if we need to as it approaches 70 years. The solicitor is claiming that when we apply to buy out the leasehold, it would go before a committee of councillors, and they could decide they didn't want to sell the leasehold - for example if it wasn't in the public interest because of the housing crisis. They also seem to be concerned that they could ask for a massive amount of money for it, although from what I've read the amount is a product of the ground rent and a formula involving the price of government stock (currently about 40x the ground rent).

Does anyone know if what they're saying about the council being able to choose not to sell the ground rent is true, and if they can charge more than the 40x ground rent?

Thanks!

Sleepy · 23-03-2023 01:58PM

Call the council, the staff will have far less invested in the price for the leasehold than a private seller would. It's quite likely they'll be able to give you an indication of what current council policy with regard to these situations is if they can't give specific details related to the house you're buying.

magicbastarder · 23-03-2023 02:01PM

does the property in question fall outside of the ground rent purchase scheme, as per the condition mentioned here?

https://www.prai.ie/guidelines-for-ground-rents-purchase-scheme/

lonestargirl · 23-03-2023 11:53PM

Which council? I bought mine from Dublin City Council recently. It does go before the council for approval but seemed more of a rubber stamping exercise. Mine cost €178, only €3 of which was the ground rent. The rest was legal fees.

CouncilLeasehold · 24-03-2023 10:57AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120391831#Comment_120391831

It's not a local authority house anymore, so isn't excluded from the ground rent purchase scheme. I don't think it qualifies for the arbitration process though, as the lessor is a county council

CouncilLeasehold · 24-03-2023 10:58AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120394186#Comment_120394186

It's Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council

magicbastarder · 24-03-2023 11:22AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120395129#Comment_120395129

not that i would know (i only have a vague knowledge of the process, because i don't have freehold on my house); but i didn't know there was a blanket exception for local authorities.

L1011 · 26-03-2023 07:54PM

The leasehold sales are rubber-stamped; there is no benefit to the council keeping them and they will likely not have collected the ground rent in decades anyway.

All council land sales have to be approved by the councillors, but these are not contraversial.

Dolbhad · 26-03-2023 08:09PM

There are some cases where the leasehold can be refused. Usually it’s if a company owns the house - generally Council want those previous social houses to be sold to people who will live there.

The sellers can inform the council they plan to sell the house to you and get a letter from the Council confirming the terms and cost of the selling the freehold title. This is sufficient for your bank to lend - they will require you to immediately buy out the freehold

It is a very straight forward issue. Possibly your solicitor may not have much experience with it?