The flat I own only has a lease of 65 years so I am really hoping for good news regarding marriage value! I would have extended it last year but I am waiting now, would save me a lot of money if marriage value is scrapped!
Absolutely! The bill that was passed prior to the election taking place was to abolish it and instead will be replaced by a new calculation, so it's highly likely it will be carried through by labour, keeping my fingers crossed for you!
The flat my mother bought is leasehold. The ground rent is easily affordable. It's the management fees that insane. My building doesn't even have a concierge or security. It's just a lift, a carpark with bin room, and lights. They are charging me over £5000 a year.
That is absolute madness, mine were around £2500 a year back in 2022 and I thought that was bad (no lift though). So much more needs to be done for this as rising service charges affect almost all leaseholders
Most Managing Agents are part of a mafia. You should force a review of the expenses and change managing agents. We have had to fight tooth and nail to keep our service charge under control. We got the shock of our lives when the same contractor quoted triple for the services via the new managing agent.
Interesting news. I would like to buy a flat in London (I work and live there). I prefer the new ones and although expensive, I can afford it. I really dislike the leasehold system, seems like a scam to me. Should I wait 1 or 2 years so I can buy a new flat using the common-hold system? I don't have any problem if I have to wait. Thanks!
Yes - if you can wait I would. Realistically in the next year or so we should start seeing these come through anyway, worth keeping an eye out for new build flats and just checking the lease terms anyway, good luck with your search!
Thank you for the information you shared. I would like to ask if I can buy a Short Lease flat at a good price now, hold it and wait for the bill to be passed then apply for a lease extension to increase the value, do you think this will be a good investment?
I think, if it's in a desirable location then YES it would be a good investment, especially if you plan to rent it out/holiday let and as long as service charges aren't rising extortionately every year
@@NicoleSage I have found a very attractive property with an incredibly short lease of seven years selling it about 40% of the real market value if it had a long lease. I’m really wondering why the seller has put it to auction when this legislation is literally about to come into effect? Do they know something that we don’t? The ground rent is very modest and the service charge is also very modest. The leaseholders have exercised the right to manage RTM.
Hi I’ve got 83 years left on my lease, should I extend now. I believe the tories bill lets me extend by 990 years and do I pay the freeholders legal bills?
If you are not in a rush, I would personally wait - yes, 990 years and legal fees for the freeholder will be capped at a certain amount, no detail on what this would be - but it would definitely be cheaper to do at that point
Just means that even more landlords will be selling faster; thousands have been selling anyway. Labour, after s21 will hit them EPC insulation regulations next so they're just getting out, particularly of older properties. Renters will have lots more rights, but nowhere to rent.
Yes, exactly right, the main difference will be the 990 years instead of the current 90 that get added on, plus legal costs for the freeholder will be capped at a certain amount, rather than footing the entire bill
Waiting on renewing my lease as 80 years is remaining from the end of next year - all very slow to be finalised and my freeholder (Regenda) didn't entertain my enquiry of extending 990 years before these reforms are finalised - so will definitely have to proceed with renewing the lease or at least start the proceedings within the next month to prevent incurring marriage value (makes no financial sense to risk this being add to the cost) - Thanks again for the breakdown!
Thanks for watching! Sounds like you're doing the right thing, no way of knowing when and if the marriage value abolishment will come in, even through this law was passed prior to the election taking place. Good luck with it!
Can you please make a video about the cladding issue and how people to get help. I have disabilities and very low income am not able to work. I’ve had my cladding removed but I can barely afford the bills and food, what kind of help is available for me? I need help but I don’t know where to turn. My flat is an ex council block.
I'm so sorry you're going through this now, I feel like nothing is being done to help those with the cladding issue, and it's through no fault of leaseholders. Leave it with me and I will do some research. I would really recommend posting this into the national leasehold campaign group as someone in a similar situation may be able to help: facebook.com/groups/786983251448976
Am trying to find out the changes. As this is my first house I want to buy I am wondering about leaseholds and if I want to extend can the freeholder not allow me to extend it or must they give me this option? I have a low budget and obviously low leases like 70 years are cheaper but next year may be in the position to extend. I don’t want to buy a low lease and not able to extend it later down the line. This is a learning curve for me. Thanx
Yes, you would have to submit an enquiry to extend which can be denied, I believe they have to give a 'a fair and reasonable' answer as to why this is the case though. Low leases definitely are cheaper as they're considered to have a defect, tread carefully on this route and find out who the freeholder is so you can do a rough calculation on how much a lease extension might cost. Having said this, reform is going to make lease extensions cheaper in time, which could come into effect over the next year. Do let me know if you have any other questions I can help with!
Sinking charges usually do form the service charge - I’d check your lease if you can and see what it says in there about the charging of a reserve fund as that will allow you to see if it’s legally sound what they’re doing in line with your lease terms
I believe they only came back from summer leave last week, so hopefully should hear something in the coming weeks, at present there is nothing else to go on.
thanks, typical government to make promises and then realise it won't happen overnight, but this helps, this does improve the situation cos i've had my place on the market for six years and the people were reluctant to buy, then government basically said "avoid leasehold like the plague" so, maybe now things will become more even, leasehold gone and common-hold will have fewer connotations. it wasn't my choice to live where i do, it was my son's school (he got a scholarship that was too good to pass up) and the idea was to move after 3 years, when he went to uni - it's been 11 years now and my last viewing was nearly four years ago, even though i'm £25,000 under the valuation.
Exactly - it feels like a step backwards, but it’s happening and hopefully will have forward momentum now with the new government. So hope the situation for you improves and it will make selling leasehold easier, and hopefully cheaper! Thanks for watching.
Please help!!! My freeholder owns half of the flats in my building plus the caretaker's flat. The management company also belongs to them.... What are the chances of changing the management company if we private lesses decide to? Or taking any decisions that can overlap their decisions? Any advice would be greatly appreciated
Have you asked whether you can purchase the share of freehold from them previously? Sorry you're in this situation, it makes things really difficult. Once the reform passes, both management companies and freeholders will have to be part of a redress scheme so it should be easier to challenge them - especially if they are currently saying it's not possible.
No we didn't ask if we can buy the freehold. I just assume this is impossible with them owning half the flats . They will be members of the redness scheme for sure ..not sure that can change anything.
If you’re not in a rush to do it, I’d personally wait as it’s likely to be cheaper and easier to do so when laws come in, it’s just the not knowing when that’s going to be right now which is difficult to gauge
It sounds like what Labour is proposing only supplements (rather than overrides) the Tories Leasehold Reform Bill. Labour's version shouldn't affect me as my lease is only a few months away from dropping below 80 years. I bought my place knowing there'd only be a two week window or so between the 'two year ownership needed to renew the lease' rule and dropping below 80 years left on the lease (and into the horrors of marriage value). It's absolutely vital, as far as I'm concerned, that the Tory version of the Leasehold Reform Bill makes it through intact ASAP, and if there is any change / delay, that the cancellation of Marriage Value still definitely happens. Labour's ideas seems to be about favouring existing leaseholders with caps, etc, rather than those who are about to renew their lease. I'd think, therefore, that passing the Tory Leasehold Reform Bill in to law should not conflict with Labour's additional vision of Leasehold change.
I agree - I think in reality not much will change from what has already been passed, but it just needs to go through that debating process again so hopefully we should know more very soon on this
Sleek-chic - what is the history and or motive of leases being offered in certain demonitions of 99, 125, 999 years? Sorry, it's a question on behalf of my brother who likes to know the background history of things. You may not know the answer so forgive me if this is an odd question.
I might need to do some digging on this for you! As far as I am aware landlords used to set this at say 99, 125 years as a way of generating more revenue without losing ownership of the land which is collected via ground rent and lease extensions so this is why flats on the market do vary with how many years they have on the lease. Nowadays, it's a bit more official so only the 90 years is added on with a lease extension.
So if you want to use a plot of land for a period of time, you should have to pay a lot more for freehold and reselling it when you've finished with it?
Commonhold must be implemented now. No apologies, no excuses and, above all, no more lifetimes. More than one somebody has suffered to death because of this infamy.
So landowners will be more reluctant to sell land, or want a lot more money for it. Yeah, that sounds like as good an idea as piling red tape & costs onto landlords, and expecting them to still offer rentals at the same price or atall.
Yes - Bbc did a piece on leasehold buildings insurance….about the freeholder getting massive commission when taking out the insurance policy for buildings and it not being passed onto leaseholders. A leaseholder owner is taking class legal action about it to pass it onto leaseholders. V promising!!
