The modern UK leasehold system is, in many ways, rooted in the feudal landholding arrangements. In the UK, when buying a house, the buyer sometimes leases the land rather than owning it outright, and must pay ground rent to the landlord. A lease is usually bought for 80 years or more, but occasionally properties are sold with only a few years remaining. If the lease is not renewed, the homeowner risks losing the property to the landlord. The right to renew is not a given and comes with premium costs. Over the years, there have been numerous attempts to restrict or abolish this system but it continues to persist.

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hdgvhicv 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

Vast majority of houses are not leasehold. It’s 125 years at lease, and aside from a couple of decades the ground rent was always a peppercorn (actual ground rents started in the 90s and have now finished)

	▲	remus 4 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		You're right, but the proportion of leasehold is still somewhat high (about 7% of houses in the UK). Kinda weird that it's still a thing. There's also a good scam going where leaseholders will try and persuade you to buy out of the lease for X thousand £, because people want the piece of mind rather than paying the ground rent.
	▲	throwup238 4 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Is there a division within Weights & Measures that handles the regulatory framework for peppercorns?

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u02sgb 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Just a point to say leasehold is very rare in Scotland. I remember being told about this when I was looking at places near London and being surprised.

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lifestyleguru 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

In UK and most of the rich EU, one doesn't even have to get indebted to be in precarious position. The land owning and tenancy alone make it, any person at any time is one letter away from being homeless or from at least months long legal battle.