Inherited leasehold house ..

[Dajstar]

If you inherit a house from a deceased relative and it's leasehold , can the owners of the lease serve up a notice to you for the property not being kept in good condition ??

Thanks in advance

[cathfromsaron]

surely not straight away!

have you asked your solicitor and/or tried to sell the house?

[Dajstar]

The land was offered to us to buy at £20,000 (back garden is 15 metres x 10 metres and front half that size) , we offered them £10,000 , they eventually dropped down to £13,500 but we decided not to buy and put the house up for auction .
But in the meantime a neighbour came in and wanted to buy the house , so we agreed a price of £40,000 (the house needs renovating from top to bottom but ) and then they'd have to buy the land from the lease holders.

Since our last coversation with the lease holders telling them we are not buying the land and putting the house up for auction , they have sent a letter saying that the terms of the lease has been breached because in their words 'the house is in an advanced state of disrepair' ... which is nonsense because we've had a builder out who didn't see a problem with doing renovation works needed.

How can they serve up a notice to us when we didn't live there ?

[dzug2]

Well one line of thought is that you are (well may be - it depends on the exact sequence of events) the legal personal representatives of the person who did live there and have inherited his responsibilities along with his assets. Living there is not really relevant.

[cathfromsaron]

i would have bought the land, renovated the house and THEN sold!

or bought the land and sold unimproved, but that would still have made a more attractive deal for potential buyers!

[Dajstar]

It was going to cost too much for us to do it up , it was our Grandads house who had lived there for 70 years , he just didn't maintain it very well but it is in no way in a state of disrepair .

I'm hoping once we inform our solicitor or/and the buyers solicitor that they can make it clear that they have a buyer for the land , maybe they are getting hot under the collar thinking we are trying to sell the house without buying the land.

[cathfromsaron]

good point!

[buildersmate]

They are trying to put pressure on you (because you decided not to purchase the freehold). It's called a negotiating tactic.
Since you are now the person responsible, because you own the lease, you are very likely to be responsible - as Dzug says, the fact you haven't lived there doesn't matter.

Just because they have served notice does not mean they are correct.

[factor-fiction]

Yes

[themas]

I know a case where the agents for the freeholder produced a ridiculous long list of alleged "disrepair" items after the leaseholder died - because they wanted to buy the lease themselves! They didn't get it & the vast majority of thew items on their list were ignored or removed.

[Dajstar]

Sounds just like what these people are trying here ...

Thanks for replies.