Documentation is of massive importance whilst pursuing your purchase of a freehold interest or enfranchisement as it is also known. Every single transaction made during the process should be backed up with a paper trail.
This simply ensures that everything can be shown to have been agreed. Often as time wears on (and exercising your freehold right to buy can take time) tempers can fray and leaseholders will get frustrated by the time that it takes and there can be lots of queries and disputes that arise, simply because agreements and decisions were not properly documented. If they are documented then there is evidence as to what was actually agreed!
It is crucial that you take on a specialist solicitor and surveyor who know the ins and outs of freehold purchase. The more specialist knowledge you have on side the simpler the enfranchisement process will become. This cannot be over emphasised. There can be a danger of wishing to appoint a solicitor that someone knows or who is known to be 'cheap' but in fact, if you appoint someone who is not wholly familiar with the process of freehold purchase and the vagaries of exercising your freehold right to buy, then you will pay dear for it over time. So only appoint experts in their field.
Ensure that as leaseholders, you appoint a representative from the leaseholders to deal with the solicitors and the surveyor as well as the solicitors from the freeholder. This representative must (obviously) be well chosen because they need to have all the skills and diplomacy to manage the situation. If you are finding that strong personalities amongst the leaseholders is causing a problem in choosing the representative, then employ a project manager instead. This is not a cheap option, but the role of liaison is important and if the wrong person is appointed as representative, for example, someone who is bombastic or lacks 'people skills' and has just bullied their way into the role, then the whole enfranchisement process could be seriously undermined.
Lastly, it is of key importance that all parties involved work as a team so that the enfranchisement will be a success. This is not about settling old problems or disputes: this is simply a process to bring about freehold purchase!
This simply ensures that everything can be shown to have been agreed. Often as time wears on (and exercising your freehold right to buy can take time) tempers can fray and leaseholders will get frustrated by the time that it takes and there can be lots of queries and disputes that arise, simply because agreements and decisions were not properly documented. If they are documented then there is evidence as to what was actually agreed!
It is crucial that you take on a specialist solicitor and surveyor who know the ins and outs of freehold purchase. The more specialist knowledge you have on side the simpler the enfranchisement process will become. This cannot be over emphasised. There can be a danger of wishing to appoint a solicitor that someone knows or who is known to be 'cheap' but in fact, if you appoint someone who is not wholly familiar with the process of freehold purchase and the vagaries of exercising your freehold right to buy, then you will pay dear for it over time. So only appoint experts in their field.
Ensure that as leaseholders, you appoint a representative from the leaseholders to deal with the solicitors and the surveyor as well as the solicitors from the freeholder. This representative must (obviously) be well chosen because they need to have all the skills and diplomacy to manage the situation. If you are finding that strong personalities amongst the leaseholders is causing a problem in choosing the representative, then employ a project manager instead. This is not a cheap option, but the role of liaison is important and if the wrong person is appointed as representative, for example, someone who is bombastic or lacks 'people skills' and has just bullied their way into the role, then the whole enfranchisement process could be seriously undermined.
Lastly, it is of key importance that all parties involved work as a team so that the enfranchisement will be a success. This is not about settling old problems or disputes: this is simply a process to bring about freehold purchase!
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