Leasehold land, lease problems.

dori2o

My solicitor has advised me that although my land is leasehold, the land registry have no records of the lease.

I'm currently remortgaging and this is holding up the completion.

I've just ordered the title register on the LR website and downloaded it, it gives the leaseholders names but no addresses. It is also possible that the leaseholders have passed away as no-one in the block of terraces where I live, who apparently have the same leaseholder (relying on information from neighbours), have paid any ground rent (£10 per year) for at lease 10-12 years.

What happens now?

Richard_Webster

I think you have your terms the wrong way round. If you are supposed to pay ground rent, but don't because nobody has asked for it then YOU are the leaseholder - you have the lease from the freeholder.

The freeholder is the one who is missing. This is a very common problem in some parts of the country.

Where is the property and where is the solicitor? For the vast majority of lenders the worst is that you'll have to pay for some (probably unnecessary) indemnity insurance. If you have factory conveyancers doing the legal work they can't cope with it because they just don't understand.

See this thread which explains things a bit more:

http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=5443

As a conveyancing solicitor I believe the information given in the post to be useful but I accept no liability except to fee-paying clients.

thecornflake

I would have a look on the leasehold advisory service (https://www.lease-advice.org) as this is an excellent source of information and you can call and speak to specialists for free. I spoke to a leasehold solicitor for about half an hour when we had issues with lease renewal a while back and they were really helpful. I think the thing you're talking about is called 'absentee freeholder' or something.

dori2o

Richard_Webster wrote: »

Where is the property and where is the solicitor? For the vast majority of lenders the worst is that you'll have to pay for some (probably unnecessary) indemnity insurance. If you have factory conveyancers doing the legal work they can't cope with it because they just don't understand.

The property is in Oldham, Lancashire, and the Solicitor provided by the broker is in Newcastle.

I would have a look on the leasehold advisory service (https://www.lease-advice.org) as this is an excellent source of information and you can call and speak to specialists for free. I spoke to a leasehold solicitor for about half an hour when we had issues with lease renewal a while back and they were really helpful. I think the thing you're talking about is called 'absentee freeholder' or something.

Thanks Cornflake i have had a look at the site and will cal them tomorrow for advice.

thecornflake

dori2o wrote: »

Thanks Cornflake i have had a look at the site and will cal them tomorrow for advice.

By the way try using https://www.lease-advice.org.uk (extra .uk on the end). This goes to the page with links to info, the original link I posted will go to a different page on the site without these links.

Good luck.