Qns about property title

peter71_2

Hello everyone,

We've found a potential flat. According to the agent, it's less than 80 years, a share of freehold with the freehold held by a company.

After reading all the potential pitfalls associated with leases of under 80 years, we decided to do some checks on the property.

We bought a copy of the title deed online and here's where things get confusing. We thought we might find the share of freehold information in the property register but it shows something strange. I've pasted a copy (details changed) of what it looks like

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TITLE NUMBER : XXXXXX
A PROPERTY REGISTER

1 (DD.MM.YYYY) The Leasehold land shown edged with red on the plan of
the above Title filed at the Registry and being Flat XX, XXXXX House,
London (XXX XXX).

NOTE:-Only the basement is included in the title.

2 Short particulars of the lease(s) (or under-lease(s)) under which the
land is held:
DATE : XX September 19XX
TERM : XXX years from DD.MM.YYYY
RENT : £XXX rising to £XXX and additional rent
PARTIES :
1.JOE BLOGGS and others
2.JUSTIN ANOTHER-NAME


3 There are excepted from the effect of registration all estates, rights,
interests, powers and remedies arising upon, or by reason of, any dealing
made in breach of the prohibition or restriction against dealings
therewith inter vivos contained in the Lease.

4 The lessor's title is registered.
END OF A REGISTER

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Our question is

a) IS the Share of Freehold information listed in the title deed? If so where? If not, where can I find this information?

b) In the property title the property owner's("MIKE MYLONDONPAD") name is clearly listed. Who is "1.JOE BLOGGS and others" and "2.JUSTIN ANOTHER-NAME"? Are they the freeholders? To see other names not related to the owner makes us quite jittery.

Any comments and help will be appreciated. Many thanks in advance.

Peter

geo555

It is usual for the "Share of Freehold" to be held by a company. Everyone in the block will own an equal share of the company. This link will give a bit of help about the freehold.

http://england.shelter.org.uk/advice/advice-192.cfm

RiskAdverse100

Where one building is divided into a number of flats there will be separate leasehold titles for each of the flats and one freehold title covering the whole of the building.

You have downloaded a copy of the leasehold title for the flat you are hoping to buy. However, this does not contain any information about the ownership of the freehold title. You will have to download this separately to check that it is owned by a company.

You will then need to go to the Companies House website - https://www.companieshouse.gov.uk - to check that the company is limited by shares and not by guarantee. If it is limited by shares then you can download a copy of the latest annual return for the company to check that the owners of the flat are indeed members of the 'freehold company'.

It is not a problem if the freehold company is limited by guarantee rather than by shares. In fact, not having shares to transfer each time a flat changes hands makes the admin so much easier! The problem is that the latest annual return for a company limited by guarantee will not contain the names of all the members of the company.

The leasehold title gives the names of the original parties to the lease - ie the names of the freeholders when the lease was granted and the name of the person who bought the lease from them. These names will have changed and you don't have to worry that you don't recognise them. They are referred to here so that the correct lease for the flat can be identified.

I would be a little concerned that the freehold is owned by a company comprising some, if not all of, the flatowners, but the lease has not been extended.

It is very common for freeholds to be bought collectively by the flatowners because leases are short. In these circumstances they really should be extended at the same time as the purchase of the freehold is completed.

You should be asking now why the lease has not been extended and try and obtain some guarantee that it can be extended at the same time as the flat is bought by you. It will be much easier to deal with the lease extension now rather than after completion has taken place.

RiskAdverse100

peter71_2

Many thanks Geo555 and TiskAdverse100 for the useful tips. We've learnt a few things from the messages posted here and appreciated the time taken by you two.


Peter