Freehold s disappeared HELP!!!

wicksidebob

Had meeting with Land registry this morning and was told that a mistake had been made in 2004 when the Freehold title was transferred to the new owner of the other flat, apparently the forms that were submitted in 2004(AP1 & TR1 ) were not completed correctly, the land registry have admitted that they made a mistake.

This afternoon I received An email from the lawyer I saw this morning saying that she had consulted with the head registrar and correcting the mistake would be very complicated as the new owners and chargees would in all probability not agree to a correction to the register as it would effect the value of the property, also the flat has changed hands twice since then,
Anyway they explain that this procedure could take anything up to 2/3 years to conclude and for this reason they have offered me a without prejudice offer of £25.000.00 , this offer expires on 7th October 2013.

I really don't know what to do? My lease only has 68 years left and my buyers think there buying a share of freehold.

I am ringing a solicitor in the morning who is a specialist in property law, hopefully he can tell me if £25 k is a good offer? My flat had sold for £225 k but not sure what it would be worth with just 68 years left on lease?

So many questions? Pulling my hair out!!!

Best wishes

Andrea

princeofpounds

Wow that's a real pain... bumping this to keep it active as we appreciate being kept updated.

I'd be inclined to think any initial offer is unlikely to be a good one, but I just don't know anything about this situation. Given that you are in the middle of a sale process, are being dumped with a short lease, this whole situation is probably going to involve lots of costs for you which presumably they would be liable for.

wish you luck. specialist lawyer is probably the right idea.

partialycloudy

Well having just gone though the lease extension process of a lease of 58years and our flat is worth aprrox £169K we were quoted £19k to extend the lease. Given that your flat is £56k more expesinve then mine I would say a lease extension will cost you more then the £25k they are offering.
Are you even able to get hold of the "freeholders" to inquire about a lease extension??

Elsewhere

Could your house insurer be of help with this problem? The people in the other flat are in receipt of stolen goods - even though the freehold was "stolen" by mistake.

"If you buy stolen goods, the general rule is that you are not the legal owner. In other words, you do not have good title. This applies even if you paid a fair price and didn’t know that the goods were stolen. The person who originally owned them is still the legal owner. The only exception to this rule is where goods are insured, such as cars. In this case, the goods would become the property of the insurance company after the real owner's claim had been paid."


http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/england/consumer_e/consumer_common_problems_with_products_e/consumer_lost_found_and_uncollected_goods_e/stolen_goods.htm

Guest101

Hmm an interesting situation, but i agree if they offer £25000, they are expecting to lose atleast double that in court.

Basically what is your share of freehold worth. If you think £25000 is a fair price then great, but if you think it's worth more (which im inclined to think it is) - if you just sold your 68 yr lease for £225.

Its not really your problem what happens to the lender and owner of the other flat.

They currently 'own' the whole freehold. I would suggest you speak to your solicitor in regards case law, see where that takes you

bebewoo

Nice touch to give such a short expiry date to the offer, its obvious they want to panic you into accepting.

loubel

wicksidebob wrote: »

Had meeting with Land registry this morning and was told that a mistake had been made in 2004 when the Freehold title was transferred to the new owner of the other flat, apparently the forms that were submitted in 2004(AP1 & TR1 ) were not completed correctly, the land registry have admitted that they made a mistake.

This afternoon I received An email from the lawyer I saw this morning saying that she had consulted with the head registrar and correcting the mistake would be very complicated as the new owners and chargees would in all probability not agree to a correction to the register as it would effect the value of the property, also the flat has changed hands twice since then,
Anyway they explain that this procedure could take anything up to 2/3 years to conclude and for this reason they have offered me a without prejudice offer of £25.000.00 , this offer expires on 7th October 2013.

I really don't know what to do? My lease only has 68 years left and my buyers think there buying a share of freehold.

I am ringing a solicitor in the morning who is a specialist in property law, hopefully he can tell me if £25 k is a good offer? My flat had sold for £225 k but not sure what it would be worth with just 68 years left on lease?

Did they explain what the mistake was? Presumably they mistakely transferred the freehold without you having signed a transfer deed? Did they give you a copy of the paperwork?

You would be best advised to see a specialist property litigation solicitor (not the same as a conveyancing solicitor) and to look into obtaining a professional valuation of your loss due to the mistake - this will be the difference in the value of your property with the 'shared freehold' and without it. You might find the land registry guide to rectification and indemnity useful.

Richard_Webster

Had meeting with Land registry this morning and was told that a mistake had been made in 2004 when the Freehold title was transferred to the new owner of the other flat, apparently the forms that were submitted in 2004(AP1 & TR1 ) were not completed correctly, the land registry have admitted that they made a mistake.

OP's then solicitors should have followed this and if they didn't they were negligent and Op can sue them.

loubel

Richard_Webster wrote: »

OP's then solicitors should have followed this and if they didn't they were negligent and Op can sue them.

I got the impression the OP wasn't involved in the 2004 transfer so presumably didn't have solicitors at that time. Land Registry have already admitted they are at fault.

notisis

Seems OP purchased leasehold flat in 93, purchased freehold jointly in 94. Other flat owner sold up in 2004 and at that point entire freehold transferred erroneously without OP's knowledge or any involvement from him. From the recent post it is inferred the freehold title was registered correctly in 94 in joint names so there would be no recourse to the OP's 94 solicitors. It seems both the seller's solicitors (of the other flat) and the LR messed up in 2004. Presumably the purchaser's solicitors at that time also failed to spot the problem (or ignored it). Seems no one checks office copies properly!

The other scenario - as it's not clear - is that the OP's signature was forged on the 2004 transfer by the other flat owner.

You need a good litigation solicitor with property experience and some way to quantify your loss if you cannot be placed back in the position you were originally in up to 2004. The LR cannot seriously expect the OP to take up their offer without sufficient time to explore exactly what the loss is and whether indeed it is possible to undo what has already been done.