How to find who owns the Freehold?

catzooo

My elderley parents have moved from their home of 60 years into a rented bungalow. They have finally found a buyer - after almost a year - and the sale is on.
As it is leasehold, Their solicitor has asked for details of the lease holder. Mum n dad have no idea of who this is - seems a chap used to call at the house to collect the lease money, about £2 / year, but he hasn't been now for about 5 years. They have no paperwork about this, they just paid up in cash.
Parents don't think this is important, as it was so little they paid!
How can we find the leaseholder? I can imagine this is going to hold up the sale until sorted.
Thanks for any advice on this...

katejo

I think you mean the freeholder don't you? Your parents would be the leaseholders who have paid the small ground rent to the freeholder. Any buyer would not proceed with purchase without knowing details of the lease and the number of years left on the lease. If this number were much below 70 years, it would greatly reduce the purchase value of the house.
Do your parents really know nothing at all about the person who collected the payment? Who organises the building insurance on the property?

catzooo

sorry - yes - they need to find who owns the freehold.
They bought the house 60+ years ago so would it then mean that the lease is likely to be not very long?
They are generally meticulous about keeping paperwork - the house deeds, and insurance paperwork were kept "safely" locked in a shed in the back yard - in case the house burnt down (I did only find this out recently.... aargh...)
They have no record of paying the lease, as a nice chap used to come round to collect it in cash.
They pay their own building insurance - they own the property - it is a mid terrace house.
Parents are both late 80's, and keep saying it was much simpler back when they bought the house just after the war.

katejo

Leasehold is much more common with flats but some leasehold houses do still exist. If your parents have been paying an annual fee (when collected) it is probably a leasehold house. This normally means that they did not buy the house outright and only bought the right to live in it for a certain period. If that was 60 years ago, there may not be much time left on it. As the years on the lease go down, so does the value until it reaches 0 and the freeholder can take the place back.

I suggest you contact a leasehold advisory agency for help. Just google that name and it will give you the link. there may be a way out of the freeholder has disappeared (maybe died?)

catzooo

Maybe its more common up north? - I sold a terraced house myself earlier this year - it was leasehold, I was paying £2 / year to a management company with a London address.
I could have bought the lease for, I think around £650, but just passed all the documents on to my solicitor.
I did buy it outright - and then sold it to a cash buyer, maybe thats why it was no problem to me.
There were some odd notes in the lease - the strangest was that I was unable to sell intoxicating liquers from the premises. Also was not allowed to hold religious ceremonies. Not a problem really!

henrik1971

This situation is quite common in the area where I live. I had a demand for about 10 years ground rent not long ago from a London-based company who I believe were just agents for the freeholder.
The freeholder originally had the freeholds for 1000's of houses in this part of West Yorkshire, but over the years, people have acquired the freeholds for peanuts. In my street of 22 houses, I think 2 or 3 are still leasehold.
When I got this ground rent demand, I almost fainted, as I was sure I was the freehold owner.
Answer: Check with the Land Registry either by phone or online. I was able to phone and they confirmed I was the freeholder on the phone, however, if I hadn't been, they might have charged me to find out who was. The cost is about £6 I think, and you can do it online easily enough. The Title report you get will show the name and address of the freeholder, leaseholder, any mortgagees, restrictions on the title, etc.etc.

On a final point, even if your parent's house is leasehold, there might still be a decent number of years left on the lease. Lots were 99 years, but some were 125-years, 250 years, and some even 999 years.

G_M

I would assume if the property has not been bought/sold for 60 years that the lease is not registered at the Land Registry.

The Freehold may/may not be registered. If it is, the LR Title will identify the owner. Check here for £4.

If neither the lease nor the freehold are registered, you'll have to rely on the paper deeds from the garden shed. Amongst them must be a copy of the lease. That will show when the lease was granted, and for how long.

For example, if they bought it new (ie the lease was created 60 years ago) then the length of the lease less 60 years will show how much remains. It may have been a 99 year lease. Or 125 years. Or even 999.

If the lease was already in existance, and they bought it from a previous owner, then it may have been created, say, 80 years ago. So so subtract 80 from 99/125/999/whatever to find what's left.

Finding the owner of the freehold if it is not registered could be impossible. The original freeholder could have sold it on, died and passed it on and it may have changed hands many times.

There is a process for registering a purchase with the Land Registry where Title is uncertain (ie the freeholder can't be found to approve it) and the solicitor will advise - but it does put off some buyers, and some mortgage lenders.

henrik1971

Good point about the possible unlikelihood of it not being registered.

We assume there is a lease to hand - possibly held by the former mortgagee in the deedstore, or by the leaseholders themselves. If so the original grantor's details will be on the lease. Perhaps check there or try tracing his/her successors.

Might be worth contacting your local Registry of Deeds? They might have copies filed.
Isn't the last resort posting a public notice in the London Gazette?

Richard_Webster

Getting details of the original grantor of the lease doesn't mean that person still owns the free3hold.

First stop is Land Registry but very often these freehold reversions have been in the same hands for years and it has become uneconomic to collect the ground rent. If the lease was for 999 years then the freehold is not worth a lot and if you can find the freeholder generally can be purchased for £750-£1500, most of which is both sides' legal costs and disbursements.

The length of the lease is critically important - if it was 99 years 60 years ago then it is unmortgageable and they will have to go through the tedious statutory process of going through the courts and LVT to buy the freehold.

If it is much longer, like 800-1000 years, then not knowing about the freehold is much less of an issue. You will probably have to pay out £100 or so for some indemnity policies. Solicitors should take it in their stride - but it depends where the property is and where the solicitor is. Long leasehold houses tend to be found much more up north so solicitors there will know about them - missing freeholders are a frequent issue. Where I am in Eastleigh/Southampton we have quite a lot of older houses with long leases but a Portsmouth solicitor might well be confused and not know what to do - so it if your solicitor is not in an area where such leases are common he will tend to be over cautious about them.

katejo

I am surprised that this problem has only been discovered after the house has already been on the market for a year. When I sold my leasehold flat, the agent needed to know that I still had 87 years to provide an accurate valuation.

Richard_Webster

I am surprised that this problem has only been discovered after the house has already been on the market for a year. When I sold my leasehold flat, the agent needed to know that I still had 87 years to provide an accurate valuation.

Brownie points to your estate agent. Most don't even bother ask things like that!