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I’m not sure how these lease clauses get away with being legal. My old university housemate lost £18k on the deposit of a house he’d bought at auction as he hadn’t understood the lease clause and the property wasn’t mortgageable. Clearly there’s a moral to this story around reading your lease but I can’t see how any freeholder could put one of these in in good faith
LukeG-
It's a sad story.
To be able to live with themselves, I suspect the authors of these escalating ground rent charge leases assume potential buyers will have done their research and priced their offer accordingly to the level of shittiness in the lease.
It's cynical though, because a lot of these places were aimed at first time buyers who don't have the foggiest.
Would be interested to know if a solicitor should on the record recommend their client not actually proceed, I suspect their liability ends with a factual account of what is being bought.
Howard
A colleague of mine used the developer’s solicitor buying a flat in a new build. He ended up with one of those leases where the ground rent increases so much over time the leasehold is valueless.