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Hello,
I wondered if anyone may be able to offer any advice.
My friend owns a leasehold flat that she put up for sale a few years back.
The freeholder of the building wanted to buy the flat from the outset but was unwilling to pay anywhere near the market value.
The flat has previously got to the conveyancing stage several times with potential buyers, yet everytime the sale has fallen apart due to the actions of the freeholder.
The freeholder has given incorrect answers to questions on the LPE1 form, never provided any accounts or FRA - basically the freeholder has done everything they can to provide an unsatisfactory account of the building and the leaseholder / freeholder relationship - it seems rather unfair, particularly when paying £400+ for the management pack that should include this information.
Amazingly, the freeholder has made the bolshy statement in an email that everytime it gets to their solicitor the sale fails and that this will keep happening.
My friend has it in writing from two solicitor’s that the reason for the loss of sales is the impossible relationship with the freeholder.
The freeholder has also made out several times that the building needs major work - has made claims that the roof is forever being repaired and again this is something that has been used to put buyers off.
After a number of years going through this my friend is struggling, a few months ago they were suicidal and they are still pretty ill at present.
Because of this, my friend finally accepted the below market value from the freeholder as they had no other choice, bills were mounting up and it was becoming financially impossible - especially when considering the solicitors fees for aborted sales, it now makes it prohibitive to even try again.
When the offer was accepted the freeholder said to the estate agent that they would always have to sell to them in the end - thankfully the estate agent has keeping a file on the freeholder from the outset.
The actions of the freeholder have cost my friend a lot of money on top of taking a significant drop in market value on the property.
Does anyone have any experience of such circumstances? And is there anything that can be done retrospectively to reclaim some of these costs which have been incurred?
I wondered if anyone may be able to offer any advice.
My friend owns a leasehold flat that she put up for sale a few years back.
The freeholder of the building wanted to buy the flat from the outset but was unwilling to pay anywhere near the market value.
The flat has previously got to the conveyancing stage several times with potential buyers, yet everytime the sale has fallen apart due to the actions of the freeholder.
The freeholder has given incorrect answers to questions on the LPE1 form, never provided any accounts or FRA - basically the freeholder has done everything they can to provide an unsatisfactory account of the building and the leaseholder / freeholder relationship - it seems rather unfair, particularly when paying £400+ for the management pack that should include this information.
Amazingly, the freeholder has made the bolshy statement in an email that everytime it gets to their solicitor the sale fails and that this will keep happening.
My friend has it in writing from two solicitor’s that the reason for the loss of sales is the impossible relationship with the freeholder.
The freeholder has also made out several times that the building needs major work - has made claims that the roof is forever being repaired and again this is something that has been used to put buyers off.
After a number of years going through this my friend is struggling, a few months ago they were suicidal and they are still pretty ill at present.
Because of this, my friend finally accepted the below market value from the freeholder as they had no other choice, bills were mounting up and it was becoming financially impossible - especially when considering the solicitors fees for aborted sales, it now makes it prohibitive to even try again.
When the offer was accepted the freeholder said to the estate agent that they would always have to sell to them in the end - thankfully the estate agent has keeping a file on the freeholder from the outset.
The actions of the freeholder have cost my friend a lot of money on top of taking a significant drop in market value on the property.
Does anyone have any experience of such circumstances? And is there anything that can be done retrospectively to reclaim some of these costs which have been incurred?
