Are you worried about divorce and what it will do to your military pension? For legal advice you can really rely on, contact our Military and Air Force Divorce specialists today on 01722 422300 or FREEPHONE 0800 1404544.
Get in touch with us today for FREE initial phone advice and a FREE first 30 minutes appointment on any aspect of Armed Forces divorce
We offer free initial legal advice and nationwide coverage.
No meeting is required, as we can manage your entire case by phone, email, or video call.
Our Military Divorce Solicitors appreciate that whilst any relationship breakdown is likely to cause you enormous stress, there are a number of ways a military divorce differs from one involving civilians. Any solicitor advising on a divorce or serving or retired forces personnel, will need to understand issues such as service accommodation, education issues and especially UK HM Forces pensions.
When you purchase a lease, you are in reality paying for a long-term rental contract. Your landlord [technically, the freeholder] retains overall ownership – the freehold – and at the end of the lease, the leased property returns entirely to the landlord. Whilst the lease is running, the landlord has certain obligations including an obligation to maintain the property – but the tenant usually has to pay ground rent and service charges. And that’s why collective enfranchisement is so powerful. It allows leaseholders to join together and take control and ownership of their own block.
But it’s a complex area of law and few solicitors deal with it – that’s why it’s really important to make sure you have experienced specialist collective enfranchisement solicitors on your side from the outset.
The main disadvantage of a 999-year lease is that, while it offers a long-term security of tenure, it still limits the homeowner’s ownership rights compared to a freehold property. In particular:
Service charges: The leaseholder may be responsible for paying service charges to the freeholder for the maintenance and upkeep of communal areas.
Limited control: As a leaseholder, you don’t have complete control over the property and may need to seek the freeholder’s approval for certain changes or renovations.
Many flat owners are frustrated by having to deal with a management company. Sadly a significant number of management companies provide poor quality work and maintenance – but still know how to charge. Poor maintenance is not only an eyesore but can affect the value of your flat – putting off prospective purchasers. Many tenants have successfully taken on management of their block of flats themselves – or have at least taken control by appointing management agents of their own choice. Savings can be quite significant.
Our Solicitors can help you set up a Right to Manage Company to maintain your building – or can help you apply to the First Tier Property Tribunal for the court to appoint an independent block manager of your choice.
While you may prefer avoiding the initial expense and time taken making an application for a lease extension, putting things off only makes it worse. The shorter a lease gets, the lower its value becomes and the more expensive it can be for the lease to be extended or to buy the freehold jointly.
Yes.the most common arrangement is for those buying the freehold to set up a separate company to hold the freehold, and for each leaseholder to own shares in it. The Company is set up so that when 1 of the leasehold flats is sold, their shares in the freehold company transfer automatically to the new purchaser. This avoids the hopelessly unsatisfactory situation where vendors keeps a share of the freehold after sale of the leasehold flat, and the new owner of the leasehold flat doesn’t end up with a share of freehold
The process of buying your freehold is a complex one. This is especially true if the block involved is a big one and if there are other issues involved gardens, outbuildings and garages (especially if they are in an undercroft).
In the same way that very few people ever try their own conveyancing, collective enfranchisement is rarely completed without a solicitor. But unlike conveyancing, which is bread-and-butter for thousands of conveyancing solicitors nationwide, very few property lawyers deal with freehold purchase on a regular basis – if at all. Our specialist team of 5, possibly the largest specialist team of its type in the country, and nothing but lease extension, collective enfranchisement and right to manage applications.
Having our specialist collective enfranchisement lawyers on board from day one is often an important factor in avoiding potentially expensive mistakes, keeping disputes under control and providing reassurance to all of those who committed to the project from the outset.
Not necessarily – some landlords will agree a reasonable price for you to buy the freehold without the necessity of a formal valuation. However if you cannot reach agreement with your landlord, then a professional lease enfranchisement valuation by a surveyor will usually be necessary – both to increase your negotiating power with the landlord and as evidence in any application to the First Tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) – previously known as the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal or LVT.
If you do decide to buy the freehold and plan asking a surveyor to prepare a valuation, you are going to need a specialist in collective enfranchisement valuation. We regularly deal with specialist values and run an informal panel of the surveyors we know we trust. So we are happy to provide you with the name of an experienced enfranchisement surveyor local to you as part of our one-stop shop service.
Click here to read more about the Enfranchisement Valuation
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