When it comes to selling a leasehold flat, vendors may have certain issues that do not make the property attractive to a "retail" buyer.
Leasehold flats can suffer from a number of detriments that may affect their value and/or appeal in the market place.
Some common issues are:
> Short lease - Any lease less than 80 years will make a flat difficult to sell, as most lenders want to see a longer lease. This limits your prospective purchasers to those who are buying with cash.
> Defective lease - Some leasehold flats may have defective leases that affect their value. It can be very expensive to resolve this and it can make the flat unmortgageable.
> Restrictive Covenants - such as not allowed to be sub-let or not allowed to keep pets.
> Missing freeholder - this makes it difficult to maintain the management of the entire building.
> Poor management company - maintenance and general upkeep mean that the building can start to deteriorate and not look its best for viewings. Internal areas may not be regularly cleaned or given a face-lift, making the interior unattractive and unwelcoming. Lifts remain out of order. Security might be compromised, such as doors not locking properly or windows broken in communal areas.
> Major building works planned - this means each leaseholder has to pay an increased service charge to cover their share.
> High service charges and ground rents - these may put off prospective buyers.
> Leaseholders in service charge arrears - If people stop paying the service charges, there is not enough money in the account to maintain the upkeep of the building, and the interior and exterior of the block can start to deteriorate.
> Unkempt communal areas - children's toys in hallways and on balconies, bicycles in hall ways, shoes outside flat entrances, unpleasant smells, lack of security, badly lit areas can all make a building feel very off-putting to prospective purchasers.
For the reasons above ... and more ... some flat owners are forced to seek a quick sale to a buyer who is not deterred by these problems.
One such buyer is us!
We consider any flat in England and Wales with any of the above problems. In our combined 30 years of experience, we've seen many flat owners at their wits end, but we are completely un-phased and are able to provide a quick transaction, usually paying for the property with cash.
So if you are in a position where you need to sell your problem flat fast and you want a discreet and reliable service, then please do contact us for a no obligation quote.
Open Property Group is a new name in the "quick sale of houses" sector with the mission to raise standards and improve customer experience. Give us a call on 0800 990 3939 to receive a no-nonsense cash offer for your property or send us an email at info@openpropertygroup.com