Defective Title

kirstyreanne

Hi,

Me & my partner have had our offer accepted on a repo & our solicitor received the contracts today. On looking the lease documents have apparently been lost & we will need to get an indemnity against the property. The only problem we have is with the mortgage company as they need to be informed of the problem & hoping the offer is not going to be withdrawn.

We both really love this property & have got it for a really good price for the area. Neither of us want this deal to fall through either.

Would anybody be able to give me any advice or info about the above & if anyone has been in this position I would greatly appreciate their opinions.

TIA

Doozergirl

I *think* if the status of the property's ownership is known going back a number of years then it isn't too bad; an an indemnity can be purchased against anything odd that might have been in the originals.

If it's a 'lease' and not deeds to a freehold property then the freeholder might have a copy?

kirstyreanne

Hi Doozergirl,

Thanks for your reply.

The property is leasehold & it's the documentation relating to this that is lost. I found the lease details from the title off the Land Registry website, but don't know where I could look for additional details (although I very much doubt I'll find any more than the solicitor!!!!!)

kirstyreanne

Hi all,

Just wondered if anyone else had any thoughts to what our position will be with the BS? Also, we will have to get indemnity policies against the lease & also probably the windows - could someone explain what this means exactly please?

Many thanks in advance.

poppysarah

Leasehold can include stuff like not being allowed to work from the house, parking restrictions, all sorts of tricky stuff. Not knowing is a quandry. Can anyone ever inforce anything if no one can prove what it is?

Richard_Webster

The property is leasehold & it's the documentation relating to this that is lost. I found the lease details from the title off the Land Registry website, but don't know where I could look for additional details (although I very much doubt I'll find any more than the solicitor!!!!!)

If the leasehold title is registered then the Land Registry should be able to supply a copy of the lease for £20.

Is it a house or a flat? if a house then the lease wording is not going to be as important as if it is flat where there could be issues about defective covenants and other "outside" matters such as a missing landlord or one that, being a company, has been wound up.

poppysarah

The repo I looked at had missing leasehold documents that it said they'd tried to find and couldn't - and nothing at landreg either.

Entertainer

What Richard said. If it's registered which it obviously is, there will be a copy of the lease held at the Land Registry. You can get a copy online which is cheaper but some of the leases haven't been scanned into their systems yet so you would need the hard copy for £20.

kirstyreanne

Hi all,

Thanks for your replies. It appear that the Land Registry don't have the lease documents - they've been lost or mislaid! I know the lease is no longer collected against the property (terraced house) as my partners father currently lives next door. It's just all so confusing!!!

Catti

Sadly, the Land Registry often don't have Leases even when they should! If they were not produced to the LR when first registered, their practice then was simply to note on the register 'no copy provided'!

Richard_Webster

Sadly, the Land Registry often don't have Leases even when they should! If they were not produced to the LR when first registered, their practice then was simply to note on the register 'no copy provided'!

Yes, that can happen, or the LR copies are bad carbon copies of an abstract of the lease sent to the Land Registry in the 1960s and since faded!

If it is terraced house you will often find that the lease comprises more than one house so you might get a copy off a neighbour's title. In my area the landowner sold 2-6 at a time to builders who built the houses and initially let them out to the railway workers who made up a good part of the population of Eastleigh in around 1900.

My daughter's house in Sheffield is one of four that share a passageway under the terrace for access to the rear and all within the same lease.