Good LeaseHold Title

Feedup_Hosue_Seller

Hi - can anybody help?

trying to sell a house we own with a 999 year lease (minus 55) ground rent 13 - our buyers SOL advises not to proceed as title on Land Registry is Good LeaseHold Title (not absolute) as the freehold has not been registred. Our SOL say its no problem and common where we live and suggested we pay for Title indemity Policy to cover their SOL as there is missing title deeds (person we have paid ground rent is not contactable althought we have provided evidence of paying the ground rent). Buyers SOL is out of the area and advising not to proceed - our EA cannot sort it out - anybody any ideas???

Richard_Webster

Have a look at this thread - it might even be you asking!

http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=6375

Unfortunately it is quite difficult to educate solrs who don't understand the realities. In practice there is very little that can happen because the title is Good Leasehold, especially if the house is very old.

It is Good Leasehold because when the Land Registry registered the title they didn't have produced to them a certified copy of the freehold deeds showing that the person who granted the lease in 1900(?) actually owned the freehold at that time and therefore had power to grant a lease.

So there might be someone else who "really" owned the freehold and went to Australia and his great grandchildren show up and go to look for that stretch of land their great grandad owned and find to their amazement (??) that it is covered in houses that have been there for 50-100 years. Can you imagine a judge's reaction if they tried to repossess the land after all this time? So in practice it is a load of nonsense. Unfortunately the CML Lender's Handbook equivocates a bit about it and seems to want either the freehold title registered (which is often impossible because the freeholder can't be found) or a Good Leasehold Indemnity Policy produced. Buyer's solrs should be told to accept a policy.

What happens is they don't understand it so they write a silly letter to their lender that doesn't have staff in house to understand the realities so they get all worried about it or ask their surveyor who may make some irrelevent recommendation.

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.