Advice on acquiring freehold (enfranchisement)

[Alanmelon]

Hi all,

I thought I'd see if anyone on here has any experience or speciality in the field of property law. I'm considering acquisition of the freehold to my property and I'm trying to get an idea as to likely costs involved. Having spoken to a solicitor, they basically said 'how long's a piece of string?' It seems that the best first step is to approach the freeholder and determine their willingness to sell and if so, which price they may consider. Some details which may influence this;

Date of lease: 1890
Term of lease: 999 years
Fixed ground rent: £1 per year
Recent valuation: £175,000

Therefore, does anyone have any idea what may constitute a reasonable offer? A few legal profession friends of mine have suggested that the freehold is basically worthless to the current holder, so I'm hoping for a positive outcome rather than having to undergo a potentially expensive legal process to force him to sell it.

[MovedGoalPosts]

How many others are in the same building as you, or is it just yourself? If there are others a majority of you have to get involved in the aquisition.

The rules behind everything are quite complex. Chances are you will need a solicitor and a surveyor. Both need to be familiar with the enfranchisement processes. Solicitor makes sure the notices are done correctly along with other paperwork, whilst the surveyor for yourself, and the surveyor for the freeholder try to work out how much you should pay (there are rules to this).

With such a long length of lease, and negligible income, it's probably not worth the freeholder having it, but equally, it's not worth their effort and hassle to sell it. You may well incur costs to twist their arm in getting and keeping things moving.

Check out the web site : www.lease-advice.org

[altis]

Some light bedtime reading!!

http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/corporate/pdf/145085

[Alanmelon]

So it looks like a chartered surveyor is the next stop for a valuation.