Owning your own home

Yep, needed a whole new roof structure on mine.

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.

I had a share of freehold in a converted Victorian terrace. I owned half, downstairs owned the other half. When buying there doesn't seem to be much premium for that setup as opposed to just the lease on that type of flat.

It was very easy as the lease was pretty clear on who was responsible for what (being upstairs I was responsible for the roof for instance) and the communal areas were minimal (hallway and tiny front yard area). The only joint cost we had was the buildings insurance.

We also extended to a 999 year lease whilst I was there which cost about £500.

There is the risk of the other freeholder being a dick but you're always going to get that risk.

If you really hate the idea of being leasehold then a flat in a block may not be for you. The leasehold element is likely to weigh heavier than in a converted house.

The last flat I owned, I bought with 82 years remaining. I extended as soon as I could, adding 99 years to the existing term for £5k plus costs. A neighbour with exactly the same lease did not extend. They went to get a new mortgage deal last year and their current lender wouldn't lend due to the 78 years remaining. They looked into extending and it was going to cost them £20k. I've since moved so don't know what they've ended up doing. Two other elderly neighbours had less than 40 on theirs. The online calculators wouldn't even touch them for an estimate.

You want as long as possible. If it dips below 80, it is seen that extending the lease will add value to the property, and if you extend from below 80, the freeholder is then entitled to half of that increase (called the marriage value). Which is why costs escalate so much dipping below 80.

All that and the fact you end up with way more questions from buyers when trying to sell, means I would very much like to never be in a leasehold property ever again.

Especially a council managed one!

Another oddity I talked about here was when you sell, you effectively need the freeholders permission and for them to complete some paperwork. Our freeholders solicitor shut a few months before our sale and trying to first find the new one then get them to complete the necessary paperwork was an utter pain in the cock.

We've got 2 keyfobs plus the exterior keypad so figure as it's mainly in and out on bikes rather than cars no need for the app. Really pleased with it plus the insulation is so much better than the old up and over we replaced. We also got about an additional foot of head height which was a bonus

Playing a very boring game of offers with one person interested in our flat.

Every day since thursday they increased their offer by 5k, we reject it.

They started 50 below asking. We have a lot of viewings in the last week, and some second viewings plus more firsts this week, offer asking price or go away my friend.

This is good to hear! Sounded like you were having a real dram previously.

Ah fair enough, well if you ever do want smart home\phone control, we used this, took ten minutes to install and has worked perfectly, I particularly like that it warns me in the evening if I have left the door open.

Yeah seems to really have picked up, we had 4 viewings between November 1st and 20th Jan, but have had 6 since Friday, 3 more this week plus 2 second viewings.

leasehold sounds like a bunch of annoying pish tbh

in conclusion, scotland is better than england

Unless you like eating vegetables, not sure they've made it to Scotland yet?

(apart from chips with salt and sauce obvs).

in conclusion, scotland is better than england

I presume the problem of who pays for the expensive work that only some of the owners/occupiers in a block want/can afford remains.

Out of curiosity: What (should) happens when the lease is over? Are you kicked out? Know it sounds obvious but just never heard about the other side

Thanks for all the replies! Really helpful to hear from real-word experiences. We're still open to locations and I guess still trying to work out the right balance of priorities and wether leasehold vs freehold is one, further out we can afford a house, but at the cost of having to commute by train most days etc.

Ideals:
Good location to live for cycling and getting outdoors, ideally within 10 miles of actual real fields
Good connections to central london, bonus if within cycling distance
Good connection to twickenham (1:30hr commute max, job may change in future)

Less important:
My family is in north Essex so something on/near that greater anglia line
Partners family in SW area
Have mates in N London

We've basically been looking in the two opposite locations, SW/kingston, surbiton or further out and NE in walthamstow/ leyton.

I presume the problem of who pays for the expensive work that only some of the owners/occupiers in a block want/can afford remains.

Yeah, I'd love to know if there's a solution that doesn't involve either depending on the agreement of your neighbours (who, as we know, are bastards) or outsourcing it all to a faceless corporation (who are double bastards).

If you're looking at leyton/Walthamstow you should have a look at forest Gate. Ticks all the boxes you've listed and once crossrail opens it'll have better transport connections than both. It's already less than 15 minutes into Liverpool Street as it is and your money will go a lot further.

tenements are usually factored/property managed and factors will do routine maintenance and get quotes for/manage one-off repairs. factors range from very good to useless (with more tending towards this end of the scale.) your responsibility for payment of repairs is usually set out in your title deeds and these can be enforced in court. factors' decisions/quotes can be overriden by majority decision, I think. probably not that different from the english system really...

just when we're buying properties we don't have the added leasehold wrinkle to contend with

How much was it (if you don't mind)? My manual up and over is very ancient and could do with upgrading at some point.

Especially a council managed one!

I have to say, in my experience councils tend to be useless as freeholders, but they're rarely actively evil.

Many third party freeholders are genuinely monsters.

We've basically been looking in the two opposite locations, SW/kingston, surbiton or further out and NE in walthamstow/ leyton

If you can afford freehold you should absolutely go for it, but there aren't so many on the walthamstow / leyton borders - the vast majority of the old Warner Estate is leasehold in my experience - but as long as they don't have an aggressive or unethical freeholder it shouldn't be a huge deal.

I've had a terrible experience living with an aggressive freeholder on the Leyton / Walthamstow borders (E10 7JS) but I wouldn't hesitate to buy another Leasehold property provided the Freeholder wasn't a known scumbag.

If I were you I'd be looking at the north bit of Hitcham Road. Lovely houses, friendly neighbours, don't seem to have the same antisocial behaviour issues as geographically (and linguiistically) similar roads like Hibbert. There's a Markhouse / Lea Bridge forum you might want to join to get a flavour of living round here? The cycling is great, the green spaces are amazing, and even this rubbish bit of Lea Bridge Road is finally starting to get a bit of hipster sheen.

Yes, that's fair.
Though council tendering and billing on major works is a right to print money.

Oh god absolutely. But that also applies to private landlords. Leasehold is just inherently asymmetric in terms of its power balance.

One thing I think we lack in England, and maybe other bits of the UK, is secure long-term rental. Something like a 10 year lease with controlled rent rises so you have some certainty while the roof remains someone else's problem.