Freehold House with Leasehold Garage

TerraNova_2

I bought a house some two years ago from the builder and with it came a garage that sits separately under a coach house. As the garage is under a coach house it is deemed as leasehold and came with an covenant which says I need to pay 18% towards the building insurance of the owner above.

Now it has come time to sell the house and there appears to be endless questions over the garage causing much distress to me now. We already lost one buyer as the solicitor told them it was too risky to buy due to the garage and ownership of the land (builders are still building on the site so not handed over to the council yet) and I'm fearful that we will lose another now. I don't get the issue, we've live hear happily, no issues, but they are now asking for extra documentation for the garage? I only ever signed one transfer for the house, which had at the bottom reference that it was connected to the leasehold garage. My solicitor is vague at best and hard to communicate with as she doesn't seem to like to talk on the phone, only via email. I'm wondering if anyone else has had this? Should I have originally signed two transfer/deeds? Can someone advise what documents should have been in place for this scenario then I can see if I do/don't really have them....?

Thanks

HappyMJ

Get another solicitor then. You have the same as me a freehold house and leasehold garage under someone else's house. They are not a problem when explained properly.

I also have the same thing about buildings insurance but the neighbours have never asked for it but they have the right to.

TerraNova_2

We're too far down the line to start swapping solicitors.

So did you sign two deeds or just one?

Richard_Webster

It would be normal to transfer a freehold title to the house and a leasehold title to the garage using one Land Registry Transfer Deed and therefore no point whatever in "signing two deeds...."

There would be two separate titles and if there is a mortgage then it would would probably affect both titles but that is a different point.

OP needs to e-mail his solicitor asking for a written explanation of the issue that is causing the problem.

ShALLaX

Hi,

I own a coach house and have three garages underneath (one being mine). My situation is that I should be the landlord of the other two garages and my neighbours should be my tenants under a 999 year lease agreement. I can charge them a "fair" (undefined) percentage towards the insurance of the entire building, but I don't bother. I can also charge a "peppercorn" rent, which pretty much amounts to nothing but makes the contract legally binding.

The developer, however, still hasn't signed over the contracts to me and my neighbours. I'm not pushing too hard for this to happen as they're going to be around for a while to finish off the development of the site. While they own the contract, they also have to deal with the contractual obligations.

Your situation may be different. You will almost certainly have received separate contracts for both your house and your garage when you purchased.

You'll need to check the specifics in the garage deed, but I can't imagine that it should be too scary for any potential buyers. Mine has various covenants to be followed by the tenants such as barring being a nuisance (playing music, etc) in the garage between certain hours, being responsible for the door and frame, not being allowed to drill into the walls or ceiling, not being allowed to store volatile substances (maybe I should demand that my neighbours siphon out their fuel tanks before parking their cars?!)

There are legally binding requirements that even protect the tenants such as the right to use the garage unhindered and conditions that make terminating the lease almost impossible (as it's practically impossible to get behind on the "peppercorn" rent payments).

Hope this helps.

Polpol_2

I am looking at the purchase of a property much like the coach house with three garages under, one of which goes with the house.

In my case the information is that the 'flat' and associated garage under are freehold and the extra two garages are leasehold. Could this be possible?

If I assume that the correct situation is that the two extra garages, which are associated with two separate adjacent houses, are actually held under lease from the freehold owner of the 'flat' my question is, "how do I find out if this is the case?".

One further question is why is freehold ownership of such a property a problem for mortgage providers?

felds

TerraNova wrote: »

I bought a house some two years ago from the builder and with it came a garage that sits separately under a coach house. As the garage is under a coach house it is deemed as leasehold and came with an covenant which says I need to pay 18% towards the building insurance of the owner above.

Now it has come time to sell the house and there appears to be endless questions over the garage causing much distress to me now. We already lost one buyer as the solicitor told them it was too risky to buy due to the garage and ownership of the land (builders are still building on the site so not handed over to the council yet) and I'm fearful that we will lose another now. I don't get the issue, we've live hear happily, no issues, but they are now asking for extra documentation for the garage? I only ever signed one transfer for the house, which had at the bottom reference that it was connected to the leasehold garage. My solicitor is vague at best and hard to communicate with as she doesn't seem to like to talk on the phone, only via email. I'm wondering if anyone else has had this? Should I have originally signed two transfer/deeds? Can someone advise what documents should have been in place for this scenario then I can see if I do/don't really have them....?

Thanks

Hi,

well we are in exactly the same situation. We bought a house 4 yrs ago with a garage we lease under a coachhouse. We lost our buyer today as she got worried with the garage situation. It appears the lease of the garage was never registered to us at the Land Registry. It is still in the name of my developer. My solicitor at the time we bought the house did not register it despite us signing on some paperwork about it. I am very angry about this situation and don't know what to do as our situation is getting desperate and we really need to sell quickly.

withabix

felds wrote: »

Hi,

well we are in exactly the same situation. We bought a house 4 yrs ago with a garage we lease under a coachhouse. We lost our buyer today as she got worried with the garage situation. It appears the lease of the garage was never registered to us at the Land Registry. It is still in the name of my developer. My solicitor at the time we bought the house did not register it despite us signing on some paperwork about it. I am very angry about this situation and don't know what to do as our situation is getting desperate and we really need to sell quickly.

TELL the original solicitor to get it sorted pronto. For Free.

felds

withabix wrote: »

TELL the original solicitor to get it sorted pronto. For Free.

would love to but I found out that the company has been liquidated.
Lost my buyer today, after having looked for one for 6 months.
I really want to sue my former solicitor but they don't exist anymore. so depressed