Can you reduce the length of the lease?

essentials2x7w

Looking for advice/opinions again!

I have just started the process of buying a 1 bed, leasehold flat, in a grade II listed building. The estate agent has informed us that there is a 99 year lease on the property that started in 2003.

I bought the title registers & the title plans for both the flat and building available from the Land Registry website. On both of those documents it says that there was a 999 year lease that commenced on the 01.01.2002.

Is it possible to reduce a lease? If so, why would anyone want to do that? Or is this more likely to be a miscommunication/mistake somewhere along the line?

I am planning on phoning the lease advisory people on Monday. Just thought i'd post it here to see if anyone knows why this might be?

Many thanks!

Annisele

I strongly suspect a typo.

da_rule

I suspect that the Agent may have made a mistake. If the title register says there's a 999 year lease then that's what there is. Unless there is an entry in 2003 which reduces the length.

The only reason I can think of why a lease would be 'shortened' would be if there was a genuine error (e.g. a Land Registry employee entered '999' instead of '99').

essentials2x7w

da_rule wrote: »

I suspect that the Agent may have made a mistake. If the title register says there's a 999 year lease then that's what there is. Unless there is an entry in 2003 which reduces the length.

The only reason I can think of why a lease would be 'shortened' would be if there was a genuine error (e.g. a Land Registry employee entered '999' instead of '99').

The quote about the lease says:

(16.12.2005) Short particulars of the lease(s) (or under-lease(s)) under which the land is held:
**I believe this was when the previous owner moved in who stayed 2 years**
Date : 16 November 2005
Term : 999 years from 1 January 2002
Parties : (1) xxx xxx
(2) xxx xxx

There is nothing else I can see in the document about changing the lease. Unless it would be written in some technical legal terminology that I haven't understood?

da_rule

So, other than the Agent saying so, there is no other reference to 99 years?

katejo

da_rule wrote: »

So, other than the Agent saying so, there is no other reference to 99 years?

Perhaps the Land Registry did make a mistake? 99 years sounds more likely for a flat that 999 years. Mine had a new 99 years one when i bought it. Has the owner been asked what he/she thought it was? There is a massive difference between the two possibilities.

jayship

It may not be a mistake. It looks like all leaseholders decided to jointly buy the freehold from the land owner. This means that the land is collectively owned. Each owner has a 999 years lease. Basically having such a long lease is typically classified as freehold technically.


In order to do this all flat owners would have had to agree to the purchase and hold the land in joint custody via a company.

essentials2x7w

da_rule wrote: »

So, other than the Agent saying so, there is no other reference to 99 years?

Not yet, speaking to him Monday and will ask him to confirm what it is. Offer was only accepted about a week ago however the EA lied about a couple of things which has led me to find out as much info as possible online, on the phone before going any further with the purchase.

da_rule

If the Land Registry says 999 years then go with that. They have an insurance scheme should you rely on a mistake that they have made: http://www.landregistry.gov.uk/professional/guides/practice-guide-39

G_M

Agent error.

Or seller error in informing agent.

That's why part of the conveyancing process is to check the Title!

essentials2x7w

katejo wrote: »

Perhaps the Land Registry did make a mistake? 99 years sounds more likely for a flat that 999 years. Mine had a new 99 years one when i bought it. Has the owner been asked what he/she thought it was? There is a massive difference between the two possibilities.

I've actually viewed more flats with a 999 year lease! this was the one with the lowest lease remaining unfortunately. I've not double checked with the owner yet as only read through the LR documents today but have a meeting on Monday and will check then