concept of usufruct

[jeba]

I´m renting a semidetached house and my lease gives me the option to extend the lease for 20 years without the landlord having a right to terminate it (as long as I´m fulfilling my contractual obligations). I like the place and will either exercise that option or try to convince him to sell me the lifelong usufruct. Is there such a thing as buying/selling the usufruct in Cyprus? If so, how to find the right price which obviously depends on the age of the purchaser. Statistically I still have 21 years to go - so 21 times the yearly rent minus a discount should be a fair price. But how to determine the discount? Any ideas anyone?

[trevnhil]

I have never heard of this before.. In Cyprus or the UK. There was nothing on our contract about it..

[jeba]

https://dict.leo.org/englisch-deutsch/Nie%C3%9Fbrauch

[trevnhil]

The link seems to be in a foreign language. I cannot see anything about Cyprus rentals there

[Devil]

Usufruct: The right of enjoying the use of and income from another's property without destroying, damaging, or diminishing the property. An example: I cede my house in usufruct to my son/daughter, while living in it until I die, when it reverts to them. It exists in UK, Cyprus and other laws.

[mikesjn]

That sounds a bit like leasehold in the UK, you don't own the property, but you lease the right to live in it and use it as your own (My parents bought a new house on a 999 year lease, they changed just about everything over the years, added an extension and a conservatory and it was all legal, the freeholder charged an admin fee for allowing the changes. I remember that and there was a peppercorn ground rent, which I think they paid £10 for life, I suppose it was costing the freeholder more to process it.), flats are still leasehold in the UK, my wife went to mortgage and buy a freehold flat, house conversion into 2 flats, to get the mortgage she had to setup a freehold and then they would lend on the lease, she was the freeholder of the entire building and leaseholder of 1 of the 2 flats. The lease on the flats was much more stringent about any alterations, basically replace like with like and externals done as a whole and shared amongst the leaseholders.
From what I understand apartments in Cyprus are all freehold and you own a percentage of the communal areas.

Jeba, What is it you want, an extra year? unspecified term, just life? I know you can do any rental/ lease term, my great grandmother, lived until she was 105 and I can still just about remember her, had a central London property on a fixed rental cost until the day she died. I would be surprised if anyone would do that now, inflation would have made it worthless by the end.

[jeba]

The link seems to be in a foreign language. I cannot see anything about Cyprus rentals there

It was a link to a dictionary in order to give you synonyms for the term usufruct.

[jeba]

Jeba, What is it you want, an extra year? unspecified term, just life? I know you can do any rental/ lease term, my great grandmother, lived until she was 105 and I can still just about remember her, had a central London property on a fixed rental cost until the day she died. I would be surprised if anyone would do that now, inflation would have made it worthless by the end.

What I want is probably very similiar to what you called a leasehold. I want to pay a lump sum in exchange for having the lifelong right to use the property as I please without having to deal with my landlord (who is occasionally dragging his feet). That way I´d be protected against inflation and could rent it out myself in case I should decide to leave Cyprus. I´d also know where to invest my life insurance which will soon be due for payout.

[mikesjn]

I am not a lawyer, but I have had leases and had some of the hiccups with them. I doubt anyone would do a "for life" one now, that has proven to be a bit of a gamble, like I said my great grandmother had one and lived to 105. The other thing is the contract, the UK has a history of leasehold properties, both residential and commercial and you often see how unscrupulous people have tried to take advantage and get the property back early on technicalities, like I said my parents owned a detached house, 999 year lease. effectively it was the same as a freehold and the cost was the same. But some people were losing there homes for not paying the peppercorn rent, which my parents paid £10 for life, so pennies a year. Okay, the law was changed, great now, but not if you were one of the people who lost their house. We also sold a flat in the UK about 7 years ago, the entire estate was built in the 70's and the earlier ones had a 99 year lease, the latter 199 years. When we called the estate agent in, he was a local independent, he pointed out that the earlier 99 year lease properties were difficult to mortgage as they had less than 70 years to run. Not saying that this applies to your situation, just that in a country where leaseholds are common there are many issues that crop up, some are just issues, like mortgaging, and others being unscrupulous freeholders playing with the law and looking for loopholes.

[jeba]

I guess I have a good chance of convincing my landlord as firstly, I have a very favourable lease contract with an option to extend the lease unilaterally (I can terminate, he cannot) for 20 years with only one rent increase of 10% stipulated and secondly he doesn´t seem to like the hassle of dealing with the property. He´s a businessman with other priorities and he also had bad experiences with my 2 predecessors who hadn´t payed rent. So it may well be that he agrees if I make an offer. My problem is that I don´t know what would be a reasonable offer and whether there are potential legal traps.

[trevnhil]

Sounds like it would be best for you to see a Lawyer..