Freehold Ground Rents
If you own some freehold ground rents and are considering selling them we would like to hear from you. We have been buying these for many years and are looking to continue adding to our portfolio across the London area. We will also consider properties that are outside of the London area but only if the leases are under 80 years.
We would very much like to purchase freehold ground rent portfolios across the London area. We buy properties with very short leases as well as 99 year leases. Our preference is to acquire blocks of flats where the leases have unexpired terms of below 80 years. We are not concerned about the condition of the building and would also be interested in buying properties where remedial works may be necessary.
Ground Rent Portfolios Wanted Across Britain
We are interested in buying blocks of flats with or without management and insurance provided the leases are 80 years or under. We also purchase properties where the lessees deal with the actual insurance and management of their building. notices. If all of your properties are registered in a single property company and the ground rent portfolio is of a substantial size you may want to consider a sale of the property company this may be a serious option.
We do buy property companies which is not a complicated procedure as we can purchase the shares in that company. If you go down the route of a company sale it is not necessary to serve section 5 notices on your lessees, obviously there are many advantages with this type of transfers as it will save a lot of money in legal fees. It will also save a lot of time.
Properties With Short Leases
In short our company will consider most blocks and individual units where the leases have an unexpired term of 80 years or less. Perhaps you own a freehold of a building and you are unsure as to it’s value, in this case please call us and we will be happy to give you a free valuation. We will not charge you for this service and we will also be able to give you advice with regard to the section 5 notices. It is important that these notices are served correctly as they will need to be served again if they have been done incorrectly. As the lessees have two months in which to decide whether or not they want to go ahead there could be a delay of up to 4 months if you don’t get it right first time around. This procedure is know as the first right of refusal.
Ground Rent Reversions
Reversionary ground rents are leases where the unexpired term is under 80 years. These types of properties attract premium as the freeholder is able to charge the lessees a fee for the right to extend there lease. Most flats that have a lease of under 80 years will be very difficult to borrow money against as the building societies and banks do not consider the property as suitable security for a loan. So if you own a building that has several leases under 80 years it will be worth more than a building with flats that are 90 years. We specialise in buying these types of ground rents and can advise you on the best way forward.
First Right Of Refusal
When you decide to sell your freehold you can do one of two things, you can wait until you receive an offer that is acceptable before you go ahead and serve the section 5 notices or you can serve the notices before you receive an offer. If you decide to serve the notices before you receive an offer you must include in the notice the price that you are willing to accept for your property.
Your lessees have two months in which to decide whether or not they want to buy the freehold. If your lessees decide that they do not want to go ahead with the purchase you have up to 12 months from the date that the notices were served in which to sell your building. The sale of the property must be on exactly the same terms that was offered to the lessees. you can sell the property for a higher price than was offered to the lessees but you cannot sell for less.
It is a very important decision to take into consideration as if you don’t manage to achieve the price that you offered it to the lessees at you will have to serve the notices again at the price that you received. In many respects it is easier to wait until you have received an offer from a company such as ourselves and we will serve the notices on your behalf. We look forward to hearing from you.
