Proceeding With Sale - Important Parts of the HIP?

not_loaded

Having just got probate for my mum’s estate, I want to proceed with the sale of her flat in Torbay.

Recently, on looking through the paperwork that someone else had prepared, I spotted that the searches were missing from the HIP. It had been marketed for months with that HIP. I subsequently managed to get the HIP compiler to sort out that problem. I should probably mention that the EA and the HIP Compiler are not the most helpful people on this planet.

With the sale imminent, last night I looked through everything and spotted that there were other mistakes within the HIP. I'm not sure that these mistakes are important, but I don't want to submit it for the sale if it's going to cause problems. Perhaps someone ‘in the know’ could give me a bit of advice about this?

The flat is freehold, and whoever got the HIP prepared originally obviously had the idea of making the flat leasehold thus, at various places within the HIP and PIQ, it mentions ‘will be leasehold’. Also, things like ‘XYZ solicitors will be dealing with the leasehold paperwork’.

My question is (finally… ) when handed over to the buyer's solicitor, do mistakes like this actually matter?

Unfortunately the HIP is in pdf form, so I can't edit it myself.

Richard_Webster

The flat is freehold, and whoever got the HIP prepared originally obviously had the idea of making the flat leasehold thus, at various places within the HIP and PIQ, it mentions ‘will be leasehold’

Why do you think it is a freehold flat? This gets very technical, but if it is a "pure" freehold flat , i.e. where each flat in a block has a separate freehold title, then it will be unmortgageable and very difficult to sell.

Are you thinking of "shared freehold"? Not the same - you still have a lease and that is what you sell.

not_loaded

Thanks Richard. Yes, I know only too well it can be complicated, but it is a ground floor freehold flat with covenant paperwork to deal with rights of access and repair cost splitting etc. It’s a converted house, so there’s one upstairs flat, also freehold.

However, it is ‘sold’ to a cash buyer (well as much as anything is sold when you have an offer) and I just need to proceed now if we can.

The question is just concerning the HIP, when handed over to the buyer's solicitor, do mistakes as mentioned in my post #1 above actually matter?

timmyt

can you let us see the link or the HIP, as freehold flats are rare. maybe leasehold but owning the freehold of the other flat and vice versa. HIps not done by solicitor firms are all suspect. If you do not use a lawyer you store up problems as it is a LEGAL pack. WE see mistakes all the time, and it slows everything down.

Pay £300 all in and no less or more and you should be fine.

Richard_Webster

The question is just concerning the HIP, when handed over to the buyer's solicitor, do mistakes as mentioned in my post #1 above actually matter?

Not really. The solicitor simply has a little moan about crummy HIP companies and gets on with the job. After all we managed OK before HIPs came out.

The issue of substance is that they needed to do the searches - local/water - on the right property!

not_loaded

Thanks timmyt and Richard. Yes, it is freehold. The LR entry in the HIP shows:

This register describes the land and estate comprised in the title.
TORBAY
1 (29.08.19nn) The Freehold land shown edged with red on the plan of the
above Title filed at the Registry and being (address removed & postcode removed).
NOTE: As to the part tinted blue on the title plan only the ground floor
flat is included in the title.
2 The land has the benefit of the rights granted by but is subject to the
rights reserved by the Conveyance dated 30 April 19nn referred to in the
Charges Register.
3 The Conveyance dated 30 April 19nn referred to above contains a provision
as to boundary structures.

Suffice to say that the decision on freehold versus leasehold (taken many years ago) was not particularly brilliant, but it was done by elderly folks thinking that ‘freehold is best’, which it is of course for houses; not really so for flats. WE know that, THEY did not, and either weren’t advised properly at the time, or chose to ignore the advice.

As long as presenting the HIP with a few incorrect comments won’t cause too much of a problem, that’s fine. Luckily it appears that the important parts of the HIP are okay, and now all present and correct.

Unfortunately in dealing with my mum’s probate and the various companies she had dealings with, one begins to discover the true meaning of crummy!