JBinhungary

Hi does anyone have any information on buying or selling a semi detached property? Friends have decided to look for property here but one of the ones they are considering is S/D. I have something in my head that says if one party decides to sell, they must offer it to the neighbour first but I am not sure if that is right even. Any other things to look out for that you all know about?

Peter_in_Hungary

What you are thinking about is joint ownership. The closest thing in English law would (I think) is tenancy in common ownership but the details will differ.
A joint ownership where each owner owns a %age of the whole does have to be offered to the other owner(s) if one owner decides to sell - but it is available at the same terms (price etc.) as agreed originally. What happens is that a sale is agreed in the normal way with a contract signed and then the other owners are notified and given the option to take over the contract if they wish with a time limit within which they must declare their intent and a failure to reply means that they lose the right by default. If the option is taken up then the original purchaser must be reimbursed for any expenses incurred. Someone buying into a joint ownership doesn't carry any more financial risk on purchase than any other, just a pain in the butt and wasted time if one of the other owners takes up the option.
A semi detached house is not necessarily a joint ownership and a detached property whilst unlikely could be a joint ownership. Joint ownership has nothing to do with the type of property but rather a form of ownership title. Flats are not joint ownership but different regs. apply to flats. Leasehold ownership is unknown in Hungary. (Leasehold is peculiar to England and a (very) few other countries)

Buying a 'semi' should be no more problematic than any other property purchase and as always the title deeds and boundaries need checking along with any restrictions or right of way and as always professional advice is needed especially if there are language issues.

There are several thing you can't control when you purchase or own a property, your neighbours being one and this is more relevant with a semi (or a flat) than with a detached property.

JBinhungary

Thanks Peter, from what they say it is a big family house & land, divided between both sons years ago. Both have seperate sewage, & all utilities, Separate entrances & numbered A & B> One is moving due to change in circs but the property is being sold as freehold/ semi but there is a long open attic above both houses. He is happy with it but would want to buy the other part when the times comes. All boundaries, etc have been outlined but the concern is if the other side decide to sell, will he get the option to buy without too much hassle. Or just walk away now?

FenTiger

Sorry from my perspective I would be careful about buying this property because of '.... there is a long open attic above both houses ...'. I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole. Within the long open attic there is nothing to stop the neighbours putting any of their stuff in either half of the attic and walk around it. They could even enter the other house via the attic.

Another thing to think about is fire risk. As there's no dividing wall in the attic a fire on one side could quickly spread to the other!

scrubbedexpat142

Pre emption rights! Be careful, get the other owners sign off before signing / paying anything!

JBinhungary

That would be my gut instinct. Apparently they will put a dividing wall in if wanted but even so. Might be ok now as the people are nice but long term and changing hands need to be considered I think.

JBinhungary

What are pre exemption rights?

Jack_Russells4ever

Never buy a semi-detached. at some point you will regret it. The current occupant may be okay but what if they sell and you get the neighbours from Hades? Then selling up may be impossible. Its just not worth taking the risk.

FenTiger

An open attic is like two properties without a dividing fence along the boundary! There's nothing to stop the neighbours wondering onto the other property.

I actually viewed a semi-detached house back in November 2019. At the back the kitchen door for both is very close and opens onto a small covered terrace. You could say sitting outside on the covered terrace would not be very pleasant if we did not get on with the neighbours. They also had a very big dog and it barked it's head off at us. I wouldn't like to be faced with that on a daily basis. The dividing fence was about a metre high and I could see that the dog could easily jump it if it wanted to.

Peter_in_Hungary

It is a Pre-emption right.
This means that the person with this right has the opportunity to purchase the property at the same price as the ordinary person who makes the original contract. It is the circumstance I described yesterday where once a contract of sale is made the person with pre-emption is offered the property at the same price as agreed in the contract with a time limit with which to take up this right (perhaps 2 weeks). If they fail to take up this right within the time the right lapses for this purchase (The right is still there for subsequent sales)

IMO it is unlikely that the remaining brother would take his option of pre-emption purchase otherwise he would have bought out his brother without putting the property on the open market. The devil could be that it was put on the open market as a way to gauge the price and once a contract was signed then that is the fair market price for the buy-out, but you can't do anything about that.

The friends could sign the contracts and have a clause saying that money will be paid after the pre-emption right has expired or at the same time as signing the contract the remaining brother declares in writing that he does not want to exercise his right and then the purchase goes ahead immediately.

Once your friend purchases part of the property as part owner they will have pre-emption right over anyone contracting to buy the other part.

I presume that the property is actually in joint ownership and the whole is one plot in the land office, the solicitor will check this or your friend can check in land office themselves.

If the property is divided up as 2 dwellings then there should be a dividing wall in the attic, in Hungarian tűzfal, English fire wall, to comply with building regs.

Another option - is for your friend to buy out the remaining brother now but giving the remaining brother the right to stay as long as he wants plus other safeguards written into the contract such as maintenance liability and utility debt etc. and a default would forfeit the right to stay. This is not uncommon here and typically the price for such a purchase is about 2/3 of the market price because vacant possession is not available. This is done as a form of equity release by older owners and situation is also covered by laws. Going down this route obviously depends upon the circumstances and willingness of both parties e.g. if the remaining brother is old enough and the friend is young enough for this to make sense. (But the purchase made in this manner is inheritable so it won't be lost to the purchasers family - but any conditions remain) A similar thing can done with ownership transfer but with a lifetime regular (monthly) payment as an equity release annuity funded by the purchaser. Just thrown into the pot as a thought that might benefit both sides in appropriate circumstances. I cant imagine either a lump sum payment or the monthly payment option happening in the UK but does happen here.

Peter_in_Hungary

Correct if it is 2 separate properties but if it is a jointly owned single property then you would have the pre-emption right of purchase - but you need to have the cash to take up the right!
Detached properties can suffer from the neighbours from Hades - but not so much impact as with a semi.

FenTiger

My UK house is end of terrace. On the first day we moved in the neighbours were playing very loud music. I assumed it was probably one of their kids but it was coming from the master bedroom so not one of their kids! This went on for years but they seem to have stopped doing this recently. This didn't give us a good start in relations with those neighbours because it was so damned loud. I've mentioned I'm profoundly deaf and if I could hear it then it's far too loud. Even the wall was thumping! When I have visitors they can't park in front of my house because the neighbours have three cars, two on the driveway and one on the road more over to my side of the property than theirs. Obviously, that's so they can get either of the two cars on their driveway out. Unfortunately, there is nothing I can do about it. Only one neighbour can drive!

This brings me to asking what the parking is like. Do the neighbours have multiple vehicles? As they are brothers they probably park anywhere and visitors too so might cause some problems in the long term when you find vehicles not belonging to the owners blocking access or parking on a designated parking space.

scrubbedexpat142

A story of pre emption (features many of the elements that Peter has described) -

Relates to an apartment we tried to buy before Christmas.

Got to contract signing at our lawyer's office. 4 out of 6 owners had signed their waivers, 2 had not, so we had to start the process. I decided not to proceed further until the process had been completed satisfactorily. Just as well. Within 2 days of our lawyer sending out the requisite letters she received a lawyer's letter of objection citing all sorts of problems between the owners, including the cute "the apartment is not worth what we are offering". At that point we pulled out completely, and managed to recover our initial "deposit with offer". The property was then taken off the market. Perhaps it was sold to the objector (at a reduced price)?

Peter_in_Hungary

My understanding is that whilst other owners have a pre-emption right, that is all they have. An owner can sell their portion of the property and the other owners have the right to buy, but that is it, they can not object to the sale and unless another owner comes up with the contract price within the allotted time then the sale goes ahead.
Of course if there is bad feeling about the sale with the other owners and you will be living next door or close then life could get difficult so looking elsewhere might be the better option.

scrubbedexpat142

Absolutely - here there was a host of other problems and the pre emption process gave the opportunity to intervene.

​​We didn't have time to mess about, so we pulled out!