Just days before we were due to exchange contracts, something happened which I – a journalist who has covered housing issues in the UK for almost two decades – did not even know was possible: we were blocked from selling our own home. 🖋️ hannahfearn
Now we were told a brutal truth: although we had paid for it, we did not own that fourth attic room, nor any right to roof access either. Why had we created these spaces, we were asked? Why did we do it without permission? Quickly we were able to prove the opposite: apart from painting a few walls we had made no changes at all to the property since purchasing it seven years earlier.
It goes without saying that we lost the new home we had intended to buy. It took us another six months to get out, and we had to spend an extra £17,000 to escape.to have been financially destroyed by this archaic, feudal system of home ownership under which you never in fact really own your home. But it’s impossible to get out for many.
The couple pay over £3,000 a year in service charges despite the building falling into disrepair, not including the ground rent owed to the freeholder too. They are on a variable mortgage, and with interest rates rising their repayments are shooting up. Attempts to remortgage have failed because the management fees on the flat are so high, and without a new buyer the couple are stuck. “It’s a real lose-lose situation and we are at our wits’ end,” she says.
Together with other flat leaseholders in the building, Chris is looking into whether they can secure the “right to manage” the property and take responsibility for organisation and costs of shared maintenance. This right can be obtained by law if every owner in the building agrees, but getting there requires a lot of effort and collaboration between neighbours – and is not straightforward.
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