UK Leasehold Properties : Subletting Problem

[soros]

Do any forum members own property in UK ?

Buyers of flats in UK are usually sold properties under a lease of 99 year or 125 year. Many of the leases often have clauses to make life difficult for flat owners wishing to sublet their flat by requiring consent from the freeholder company . Unfortunately for leaseholders , many of freeholder companies try to make extortionate demands for giving their consent to subletting.

Have any forum members experienced this problem ? If so, do they pay up ?

[Jon-san]

What's a freeholder company?

[soros]

What's a freeholder company?

Sorry , I lost sight of this post and have not replied earlier.

The party owning the "freehold title" of the block of flats is often called the freeholder. There are some "freeholder" companies investing in portfolios of the freehold titles supposedly for the ground rent income but they actually engage in ripping off the leaseholders.

[pianist]

why would any sane person buy a 99 years old leasehold flat in UK when most properties in UK are on 999?

[soros]

In UK , the wealthy and ruling classes have always held the idea that the owner of a property can do whatever he/she likes with his/her property. When the builder constructs a block of flats , the builder could sell the flats under freehold title or leasehold title ( or since 2002 under Commonhold title). But since it is a requirement of the Council of Mortgage Lenders for the the block of flats to have a contract for building maintenance, only a leasehold title can satisfy this requirement.

So the builder will always sell flats under leasehold title as majority of buyers require a mortgages to buy. And the sane person will choose to buy a freehold house.