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I've owned the lease on the top half of a converted terrace since 2013. No issues at all so far.
Extended the lease three years ago when there was 87 years remaining. Freeholder initially quoted £13k but I got in touch with a chartered surveyor who immediately said that was about 50% too much. Appointed them to deal with it and paid £7k for a new 125 year lease, so that's sorted for another 40-ish years.
Appreciate there are benefits to share of freehold, but there's also some reassurance in the freeholder being a third party in case the other ones are dicks. Or sell to people who turn out to be dicks, etc.
Looking at buying a place, I would rather be outside of London and own a house but jobs dictates. So we're looking at flats.
I hate the idea of a leasehold as well as the potential of there being big issues with the building that require fixing and having to pay up. Strangely if I needed to spend thousands in a new roof on a house (freehold) it would somehow irk me less as it's 'mine'.
Probably being naive as I don't know anything about leasehold but what are the general things to look out for? is a Victorian house converted into 2 flats an easier lease than a purpose built multistory?
Is a 100 year lease satisfactory?