my sale about to collaspe over lease

hbklea

my solicitor has just rang me saying that the venders sols have not accepted the copy of the lease for my flat, as its just a general copy and not actually related to my specific flat. she says i'm very unlucky that even the land registry cant find a copy. what do i do? she's ringing the sols who helped purchase the property for me and i'm going to get in touch with the management company. what more can i do? i've had nothing but problems since i bought the property and even in selling its turning into a bit of a nightmare. any help would be greatly appreciated!

hazyjo

How did you buy it? Was anything flagged up then? Are you using the same solicitors now to sell it as you did to buy it?

Hope you get it sorted.

Jx

Richard_Webster

How long ago did you buy it?

Was the lease new then?

Have you remortgaged the flat and if so when?

hbklea

i bought the flat 4 years ago, nothing was flagged up then by my sol. i'm using a different sol this time around. never remortgaged, lease was 125 from 1985 when i bought it so roughly 100 years left. just feel a fed up at mo, thought everything was ok and we were only a matter of wks away fom completeion. my new sol is going to speak to the previous sol i used toady, so we'll see what happens

Richard_Webster

Your previous solicitor should have seen at least a copy of the original lease , i.e. a photocopy with dates on and copy signatures etc. If they had that then your seller's solicitor should have had the original lease.

Mortgaga lenders often don't seem to want to keep leases these days. Your previous solicitor should have insisted on getting the original lease from your seller's solicitors and then should have either sent it to you for safe keeping or sent it to your lender (if they still required it) or quite possibly kept it in their file.

hbklea

sale is about to collaspe, the estate agents are constantly ringing me asking what i'm doing to get hold of the original lease? i feel i'm not getting any help whatsoever. my old sols blame my new ones and vice versa, and i'm stuck in the middle. i'm ringing the land registry, speaking to the managemnt agency, even the chairman of the committe of the flats. feel like i'm getting nowhere. told my new sol to ring my old ones, they both baffle me with things which i haven't a clue about, and i dont know who to believe. wish i'd just used the same ones i bought the flat with to sell it.
old sols, land registry, management company, mortage company haven't got a copy? what can i do. i phoned up the land registry and they told me to fill in an oc2, or something like it form, and send £24.
should i be doing this? or should my sol? my old sols are telling me to get in touch with the company who own the leasehold, well their sols.
i am completely at a loss what to do?

kmmr

hbklea wrote: »

. i phoned up the land registry and they told me to fill in an oc2, or something like it form, and send £24.
should i be doing this? or should my sol? my old sols are telling me to get in touch with the company who own the leasehold, well their sols.
i am completely at a loss what to do?

For £24 I would say do it yourself. To be honest this sounds like a good sign, as they must believe they have a copy. The OC2 form and £24 are standard methods of getting a copy of your lease.

Your solicitor could do it for you, but sounds like they aren't too focussed on this job. Do it yourself, and then maybe the problem will go away. In my (single) experience, it took about 3 days to get my copy of the lease after completing OC2 and submitting it. Plus I think if you go to the land registry directly they may give it to you immediately - give them a call and ask them.

Jenniefour

Sorry to hear all this is going on and causing problems with your sale. Not an expert but have owned leasehold flat in the past - I would contact the freehold company, as your old solicitors are advising, and then contact their solicitors. They may well have the original leases.

I know I'm asking the obvious - but have you checked all the paperwork you have when you bought the flat to see if it's there?

And I believe it's normal to be supplied with a copy of the original - and someone will definitely have the originals - or should have.

hbklea

Jenniefour wrote: »

Sorry to hear all this is going on and causing problems with your sale. Not an expert but have owned leasehold flat in the past - I would contact the freehold company, as your old solicitors are advising, and then contact their solicitors. They may well have the original leases.

I know I'm asking the obvious - but have you checked all the paperwork you have when you bought the flat to see if it's there?

And I believe it's normal to be supplied with a copy of the original - and someone will definitely have the originals - or should have.

gone though all my paperwork and given it to my new sol, they say its a bad copy with pages missing. just wish i'd not taken the estate agents advice and gone with their recommended solicitor. is it too late to ask for my old ones to carry on with the sale. or will i get charged double. going to fill in and take in the form the land registry suggested and fingers crossed that'll sort the mess out.
thanks for the advice, much appreciated :T