Implications of Leasehold Properties

[Meg888]

I've got my eye on a house, but it states that its lease hold. I know that this means you don't own the land; does anyone know of the implications? ie can you be forced to sell your home against your will? do you HAVE to buy it within a timescale? and are you allowed to extend on it or say build driveway? thanks in advance

[hayley2956]

Hi Meg888, Leasehold means u do not own the land, but the landlord does, however, you do have an interest in the land if you become a leasehold tenant.

Within leasehold tenancies there are both landlord and tenant covenants, where the parties promise to do something/ not to do something to the property, maybe keep up repairs etc. (it may be worth checking out the Landlord and Tenants (covenants) Act 1995 to see this). So if you do not keep up these requirements then you can, by court order be evicted eventually.

Therefore things like building a driveway etc i would imagine have to be cleared by the landlord first.

As regards to selling your home against your will, i presume u mean when the tenancy ends? You will only purchase the leasehold of the property for the time specified by the landlord (or the tenant who may also assign the rest of his lease to you). This time will be defined and can be ended in 3 ways: expiry of time of the lease granted, Termination of the lease, or forfeiture (where the tenant(you) forfeiture due to non payment of rent or not keeping up the covenants specified).

Phew..... iv got that all out, i hope it is of some use and not all gobbledy gook to you!!!!

[hayley2956]

sorry i didnt quite finish my last point off there properly, you will have to vacate your home when the lease ends unless the landlord agrees to grant you a new lease.

[NORMANTHEDOG]

you can allways buy the lease at the same time.ask him for a price.

[Meg888]

Thank you to you both, and yes Hayley that does make sense. I note in one of your earlier posts you state that you've just got your law degree... congratulations on that -you're obviously a very clever girl and an asset to answerbank!

[themas]

This organisation can give you info etc.

http://www.lease-advice.org/

Find out how long the lease has to run. There may be statutory provisions allowing you to buy the freehold or a lease extension, but the amount it will cost depends very much on the remaining term of the lease - the shorter the term the more expensive buying the freehold or a lease extension will be. You will need to study the actual lease to find out what you can & cannot do without the freeholder's permission.