Buying freehold from Wandsworth Borough Post Reply

[mamaccs]

Hi Anyone has got experience in dealing with Wandsworth Borough to purchase freehold?

We think the Borough is giving us a hardtime. The municipality is asking for crazy money because there is a loft space which we want to convert and it currently undemised, and the municipality is asking as a price half of the "net additional value", and is calculating the net value based on a unrealistic resale price.

Do you have experience or know of how much people paid?
Do you have experience in negotiating with the borough?

Thanks so much!

[Clare Lupton]

Sorry, I don't have any experience, but thought I'd reply to bump this back up for you in case anyone else can help?

[missingthesun]

Hello. We paid £20k for the freehold for the undemised loft space in our flat in Balham from Wandsworth council. Overall we paid a significant amount for the freehold but our lease was short <75 years. We purchased the freehold approx 6 months ago. Hope that helps!

[mamaccs]

thanks Clare for bumping back up!

@missingthesun..thanks so much, that is very interesting!

In case you are happy to share more detail, I am trying to understand also this aspects:
Was this the initial offer or could you negotiate a bit?
To get the right price, Did you rely on surveyors that you feel to recommend?

Wandsworth is asking for so much more than ~£20k from us.
However I know of other cases also in Balham that paid a value similar to the price you paid, which seems to indicate some recurrence at least (i am talking of typical undemised roof able to accomodate 1 or 2 beds if extended into the backpart.

We also will have to pay another sum for the "actual" freehold.
The undemised roof is a separate part that makes the bulk of the payment.

[HannahClat]

Hi All,

Did you ever get a resolution to this?

We had the valuation done on ours (exactly the same situation) and the surveyor was quoting a crazy extra 60 sq metres and saying he has to value it like there is room for a new 2 bed flat to be built!!

It's just madness, my husband thinks we will be able to negotiate them down but I am not sure. Don't even know the price yet but he just kept saying (in a very excited voice!) " it's going to be a big number".

Would you mind telling me what they quoted you?

Thanks,
Han

[mamaccs]

Hi,
After 6 months of negotiations we agreed a price with the Council Valuer.
We negotiated down the price but took us ages.
We did a market research of the real state around us and some number crunching.
If you need more info send me a private message.

[becs.3]

Hi All,

Did you ever get a resolution to this?

We had the valuation done on ours (exactly the same situation) and the surveyor was quoting a crazy extra 60 sq metres and saying he has to value it like there is room for a new 2 bed flat to be built!!

It's just madness, my husband thinks we will be able to negotiate them down but I am not sure. Don't even know the price yet but he just kept saying (in a very excited voice!) " it's going to be a big number".

Would you mind telling me what they quoted you?

Thanks,
Han

Hi,
After 6 months of negotiations we agreed a price with the Council Valuer.
We negotiated down the price but took us ages.
We did a market research of the real state around us and some number crunching.
If you need more info send me a private message.

Hi,
I realise these posts are slightly old now but have come across them also trying to find any information regarding the cost of this space! Living in Wandsworth and hoping to convert the attic, any help or advice would be great.
Thanks Becs

[HannahClat]

We ended up getting a valuation of £223,500 for ours because they argued it could have another flat up there.

£23,500 for freehold and £200,000 for loft space!!!

They offered no comparable evidence so we told them shove off and we sold the flat with planning permission and bought a freehold house.

They only see this as a way to make money and are unreasonable so you need to be up for a fight. They would have sold the loft to us for £60,000 after some hard negotiating but even that didn't make financial sense as with the freehold it would be £83,500.

The surveyor we dealt with was very poor and I suspect that is why he is working with the council so you should get your own valuation from an independent surveyor to use as evidence against the silly number you will get from them.

The key to work out loft value is to calculate the marriage value. Basically this is the value of the property after the completed work minus the cost of the work. This is the uplift in value and you should half that figure.

Example would be -

Value before work to loft = £400,000
Value after work to loft = £500,000
Uplift in value = £100,000
Cost of work = £50,000

So the marriage value is £50,000. This should be divided by 2 (halved to get your cost) = £25,000

The freehold valuation is a set calculation so this cannot be argued with readily but a loft is an all together different prospect.

[bryanwalker]

No, purchasing the freehold is a collective process and requires both leaseholders if there are only two flats in the block or more than 50% of the leaseholders if there are three flats or more.