Stand and Deliver - the modern highway robbery !

I'd just enjoyed a fabulous client meeting, the coffee house courtyard was bathed in sunshine and the Americano was mellow. With a skip in my step and a bit of time on my hands, I thought I'd just pop into the shops, grab some provisions before heading back to base, when the phone rang...... "We've lost our buyer now we're going to lose the house we're buying", said the forlorn, dejected and downright desperate voice on the other end. My heart sank.

Hello, my name's Jill and I work hard to engage my clients with financial planning, to manage risk, protect the ones they love and finish rich. Sometimes, just sometimes, things don't go quite to plan, especially when external events are outside anyone's influence. When this happen's, it's perhaps at its most acutest and stressful when property transactions are involved.

After months of being outbid for a family home, time after time, my clients eventually had an offer accepted. There was no upward chain as the owners had previously bought the property as an investment in their retirement and were now streamlining and disposing of their assets. As soon as my clients put their flat on the market, it was snapped up by an investor, a cash buyer with no downward chain. At last, the stage was set, what could possibly go wrong ?

After taking the call and listening to events, I felt as distressed as my client on the other end of the phone but queuing up in the supermarket checkout wasn't the right place to have a conversation. I promised to call them back as soon as returned to my desk and suggested they phone their lawyer for advice and to not do anything rash.

What on earth had happened and how could this be remedied for my clients who were due to exchange and complete the sale at the end of the week. It's never a good idea to try and have client calls whilst driving, I like to have my fullest concentration - my journey back to base seemed to take a long long time.

I'm pleased to say that exceeding all expectations the application for their mortgage went smoothly. The property valued up well and the lender retained a flexible attitude throughout the application process, allowing child benefit, overtime, tax credits and considering just one year's self employed accounts when assessing affordability. Brilliant ! The mortgage offer was issued promptly and it was now down to the solicitors to undertake the searches, talk to each other and get the sales contracts exchanged. There was however the issue of the lease.

When they first purchased the flat my client's had read through their lease and were fully aware of its scope and of their contractual responsibilities. Their lawyer had read through the lease, all was good and documents were sent to the buyer's solicitor for the transfer of the lease to take place. We were, as they say in the final hour of the whole process.

It was at this stage in the process that the freeholder quite unexpectedly presented my clients with a demand for a significant sum of money. This had to be paid before they could exchange of contracts. It was a bill for maintenance work that had apparently been undertaken during their occupancy.

Over 25 years ago I used to run the mortgage desk for three estate agents and heard a wide array of "dirty tricks" used in the house buying and selling process to squeeze more money out of a situation, most of which were at the point of exchange. This is the time when people are most vulnerable with limited or no room to negotiate.

Its a modern day stand and deliver, your money or your sales chain.

I cannot possibly comment on the legality or the motivation of the freeholder but suffice to say the sum was significant enough for their buyer to back out, leaving no time for my client's to legally challenge the bill and keep the chain intact. All seemed lost, or so they thought.

If you've read this far in the article, I'm pleased to say we have a solution. I went back to their lender for the purchase and explained the situation, it was agreed the new mortgage would still be affordable if they let out the flat. All they needed was evidence of the rental figure from a letting agent. We went to their existing lender for the flat and asked for "consent to let", which has been approved. An evidential letter duly submitted to the lender and a new offer was issued, within three working days. Fortunately, their family have also stepped in which means they are not reliant on selling the flat to release the equity but if they did we could have applied for a more time consuming and expensive alternative buy to let mortgage on the flat. All of this has taken place whilst the people they are buying from have been on holiday and blissfully unaware of how my client's have pulled the situation around.

The aim of all of this was to try and create options:

• can my clients now move
• do they need to roll over and pay the unexpected bill.
• can they rent the flat and take their time to undertake a legal challenge
• can they explore purchasing the freehold with the other flat owners to prevent further unexpected demands.

It also means that they will have to eat rice and peas for a little while and buy second hand furniture, re-cycle and up-cycle for a while but their new home will be secured. So if you find yourself in a similar situation please don't panic, explore all the possibilities, talk to your financial planner and legal adviser.

In the main, buying a leasehold property should provide a secure way of owning a home and a way to co-ordinate harmony, enjoyment and maintenance of the communal areas with other leaseholders. There are a couple of resources below to shed light on issues relating to owning a leasehold property.

• The Leasehold Advisory Service - a government funded non profit organisation provides independent advice for residential lease holders and park home residents.
• Shelter the National Housing charity has a number of resources on their website including these pages dedicated to leasehold issues

The reason for posting this article is a tribute to my clients' resilience but also to highlight some of the pitfalls, or what I call bear traps, that can occur in the property selling and buying process. I wonder if whether all the leasehold issues should be dealt with first, before making an offer on a property, getting mortgage funds approved and nearing the end of the conveyancing process. It would be interesting to hear what property lawyers have to say on this.

Hopefully, soon, I will be able to post in the comment section a happy ending. Affordability is there for my clients and they can also pay the extra stamp duty incurred on the purchase of what will effectively be a second property *. However, on making a request for permission from the freeholder, to let the flat, he has refused this permission until they have settled his unexpected bill.

* It states on the Government web pages for calculating the stamp duty land tax, that a refund may be available if the previous main residence is sold within 3 years.

It would be very interesting and helpful to hear from specialist lawyers / barristers to see what solutions maybe available.