dilemma

[gazburge]

i have the option of purchasing a leasehold prohperty aprox price 450,000 i found out from my solicitor that the landlord is the council , and there is only 62 years left to the lease and if the council decide they have good cause to reclaim the land for their use ecspecially inparticular when lease is up they could decide they want the building and land for their particular use then i loose the chance of what i thought could have been a good investment for the future maybe sell it once i retire aprox 20 years the ground rent is £350 per year obviously i\ would have to extend the lease from the council ideally would have liked to buy the freehold but apparently they have a no policy on dooing this obviously when the lease is extended wether it be now or later the council will want what is the going rate for the ground rent review . i thought that they could not take control of the building as i was under the impression thats what i was buying but after solicitor pointed out about the the councils /landlord contract that i have to ask their permission for any internal alterations etc etc and they can if i dont conform with what they would consider an ideal leasee i could be given notice what is disturbing i could do a lot of improvements and invest a lot in the building and when i may want to sell any potential buyer will not want to pay me enough to have give me a return on my investment escpecially if the yearly rent has gone up the building is ideall for our growing purpose so with paying for this building up front am i just paying a glorified rent up front as i am never going to be the true owner of this building and how would any other potentiall buyer view this in years to come. what would you advise?

[MorethanWords]

Wow that was a hard thread to read!

Anyway, i would possibly contact the council prior to purchase to find out if the leasehold could be renewed. On the other hand, 62 years is still quite a long lease imo, so might not be worth worrying about just yet.

In terms of improvements, they're not going to oppose it unless you're going to do something to totally change the building or use classification. Anything that is going to enhance the property is surely good?

And the ground rent is minimal now - i'm sure that it wouldn't go up by huge amounts, and in 20 years £350 is going to be like 50 or 100 now i.e. not a lot in business terms. If the building is worth it, most businesses would not oppose buying a property on the basis of ground rent.

[Jayne]

Hi,

Many properties which are privately owned are on long leasehold, most 99yrs. If you are worried about this, there's a site called landlords zone and has many property experts on, may be worth a look. if you cannot find it, it's on my links page on my site ( BowBiz). You may get help on their forum :D

Jayne