When purchasing your freehold is going to take forever.

Your lease term is fairly short, you have had enough of dealing with your freeholder and their managing agent. You have even saved up enough money to afford the premium to buy your freehold. However, just when you think you are getting your property finances back on track your solicitor and surveyor tell you that it will take months, if not years, to agree matters with the freeholder. That is just too long to wait. 

One option that might be worth looking at is using Right to Manage as a stepping stone on the road to purchasing the freehold. Right to Manage and freehold purchase are usually seen as alternatives but, where the end result of a freehold purchase is a long way off or not guaranteed, Right to Manage can be a first step to taking back control, buying you time whilst you wait for your freehold purchase to come through. Just a thought! 

Buying the freehold can cost thousands of pounds, and also tends to be a time-consuming process, involving price negotiations with the freeholder. By comparison, exercising the Right to Manage is a much more affordable option- as there is no premium payable to the freeholder, and as the process is non-adversarial, costs of the application are low.

Lastly, a quick comment on extending your lease, as this is something else that you are to likely come across in your research. For a premium, most leaseholders will have the right to extend the term of their lease, which can be important if the remaining term is under approximately 80 years. This will not, however, have any bearing on the management of the building and the freeholder will continue to manage it. Whilst it depends very much on the circumstances of each particular building, freehold purchase is these days often similar in cost to lease extension and the preferred route for many.