Owning your own home

Which is a double pain in the dick for those of us who've bought old council flats.

Not known for having punitive, escalating ground rent charges designed to exploit hapless buyers and their asleep-on-the-job solicitors.

Hard to say. It would depend on the size of the installation to some extent. The first one is usually more expensive as it requires the whole system is checked in detail. There are a few favourites things to fail on depending on the age of the system and the type of property. I would say prices start around £400.

What type of property and how old is the electrical system.

Only if the council still own the freehold. Our freehold was auctioned off in 2010 and bought by the infamous Triplerose, who do exactly this, and seem depressingly successful at it too.

Hmmm. Oh dear. So how does this affect your lease?

Lobby your MP. If enough people do this now then there is a chance that the legislation will be extended to cover all leaseholds.

Fortunately my lease is still the standard one signed in 1984. But if the previous owner had extended it informally the freeholder would - apart from trousering around £30k in non-refundable 'admin' fees - would've taken the opportunity to add a clause to increase the Ground Rent to £250PA basic which would increase every five years in line with the Retail Price Index. I know this because I've seen an informal extension offer. They're also known for trying to sneak additional clauses in outside the terms of what's informally agreed.

I'm extending via the statutory / formal Section 42 process in a year and a half's time. Fuck that noise.

Good goddamned shout. Stella Creasey, expect some mischief in your inbox.

Hah, nice.

I was lucky and our freeholder kept the same terms for GR during our informal extension which are £100 a year for the first 25 years, then doubling every 25 years. I won't be there in 25 years.

Sadly @stellacreasey flounced from LFGSS a couple of years ago

I heard she was banned.

I heard she was Tree Trunk.

1 bed flat, split terrace. I've been quoted £120 which sounds good but bracing myself for much work needed.

We're going to start making offers on places soon, so if anyone wants a nice 2-bed flat in SE London for £270k get in touch and come over for coffee to see the place...

Coffee at mine

£270k

you sure?

mates ratez?

Going ratez. It's a nice place, but Downham ain't the trendiest part of London.

This is my living room view.

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You could easily add £10k if there was a cyclist in full rapha that you could see through the window

How much if they were suffering epically in black and white?

This is my estate agents living room view .

ftfy :)

Bisque flow form radiator?

Hey. Less commenting, more purchasing.

It'd be helpful if Amey stopped reminding people that he lives near this flat. It doesn't seem to be boosting interest.

The flat we're trying to buy has a 67 year lease. Do we get the current owner to extend so we buy with a new lease (security, cheaper now, no legal nonsense for us to deal with now, but we don't get to negotiate the terms), or do we buy with a short lease and extend ourselves later, either mutually or statutorily? The flat below is up for sale, and is in the same situation. I'm not sure if the freeholder would sell (they do appear to be happy to extend) and it seems that as lowly almost-buyers were not even allowed to know who they are or contact them.

We've had a mortgage approved based on the current lease length.

Get the current owner to start the process. It'll almost certainly cost more in 2 years time unless there's a spectacular crash in property prices.

You can take over the process when you buy and negotiate terms.