Deed of Rectification Advice

Mrixolite

Hi all,
We are in the process of selling our Shared Equity, Housing association built flat. It's got quite messy as it has been discovered that our Leasehold drawing actually shows an incorrect footprint, and we are fairly certain it shows a flat from the associated non-housing association development next door.


Our Solicitors are saying we need a Deed of rectification at our expense, which is fine however I have a few points that I cant seem to get an answer about

• The drawing on our Lease is signed by two representatives of the Housing Association, not us (me and the wife. In fact , we cant ever recall signing a lease drawing at the time of purchase, though this was over 10 years ago when we were naïve first time buyers). Have we got a case to pursue our original solicitors to see why this is?
• We need the freeholder (managing agent) to agree to the Deed of rectification as presumably his Freehold with the land registry is also incorrect. He is saying fine as long as we pay all the costs. Is this reasonable considering technically he also has a defective lease?
• Would it have been the Housing association that would have logged the property with the Land registry? i.e is it their ultimate responsibility that it is incorrect, or should we (or our solicitors at the time) picked this up

We are saying yes to all charges at the moment as we have already lost one buyer and our Vendors have kindly hung on for us (we cant lose this house), so we don't want to delay this process any longer. Will we have recourse after completion (should it ever happen) for claiming our costs back once the culpable party has been identified?


I suppose the supplementary question is, who is likely to be the culpable party?


Sorry for the long post.


Thanks in advance

Mrixolite

wow, 83 reads with no reply. Must have stumped you all No problem. its got us head scratching too.

kirtondm

Not sure but I reckon it will take ages to sort out.


We have the issue our garage was not registered when our property was bought.


Our previous solicitors have been unable to contact the previous buyers and in the end we had to apply to the land registry with a sworn statement form their solicitors to say the garage was supposed to be included in the sale.


It has taken 7 months so far and we have lost 1 buyer.


I have still have no idea when it will be resolved.


Our previous solicitors are covering the costs

Catti

We had a similar situation with a client. The initial Lease was granted for GF premises, but sold 3 times before anyone noticed that it referred to the FF premises and the plan did also!

In that case, the Freeholder accepted they had made an error and agreed to deal with the deed of surrender and lease, and the solicitors who acted when our clients bought agreed to meet our costs.

Mrixolite

Thank you. Time is of the essence for us so we are (probably foolishly) agreeing to pay all costs in the hope we can look at them again after exchange

Arnieboy

Mrixolite wrote: »

Thank you. Time is of the essence for us so we are (probably foolishly) agreeing to pay all costs in the hope we can look at them again after exchange

Hi. We have just landed in a similar position. How far down the line are you know? have you managed to resolve this yet. Would appreciate any feedback.

jb.hair

Hi Ian not sure if Ian doing this right (first timer) ��
Ok so I have owned my lease hold flat 2years we are just about to sell when we have a lease problem
The lease States the ground rent is split 3ways this is wrong it's 50/50 with my ground floor and the flat above. I am told the freeholder brought it over and never changed the lease .we now have been told by our solicitors we need a deed of rectification.
Befor we can exchange or complete witch is meant to be in 2 weeks ��
So what aim asked not is how long does this take?
Also should I be paying anything as it was the lease holder that gave a incorrect lease to sign 2 years ago also my solicitor didn't pick up on this when we brought!!
We do hold the right to manage but the buyers solicitor have said if this right to manage is lost the new buyer won't be covered buy the lease.
I am so worried we will lose buyer and that it will take forever also that we are going to get a large bill for something that isn't our fault.
Sorry if I have posted this in the wrong way

TBagpuss

Mrixolite wrote: »

Hi all,
We are in the process of selling our Shared Equity, Housing association built flat. It's got quite messy as it has been discovered that our Leasehold drawing actually shows an incorrect footprint, and we are fairly certain it shows a flat from the associated non-housing association development next door.


Our Solicitors are saying we need a Deed of rectification at our expense, which is fine however I have a few points that I cant seem to get an answer about

• The drawing on our Lease is signed by two representatives of the Housing Association, not us (me and the wife. In fact , we cant ever recall signing a lease drawing at the time of purchase, though this was over 10 years ago when we were naïve first time buyers). Have we got a case to pursue our original solicitors to see why this is?

Did the original solicitors ask you to check the drawing? The solicitor will never have seen the property, so iunless it was very obviously wrong (e.g. house not flat, totally different number of rooms) the solicitors probably would not have been able to tell that the plan was incorrect

[*]We need the freeholder (managing agent) to agree to the Deed of rectification as presumably his Freehold with the land registry is also incorrect. He is saying fine as long as we pay all the costs. Is this reasonable considering technically he also has a defective lease?

presumably he currently doesn't care enough to want to change it - unfortunately if it is currently more urgent for you than for him, he is in a strong position to say he will cooperate but isn't prepared to pay

[*]Would it have been the Housing association that would have logged the property with the Land registry? i.e is it their ultimate responsibility that it is incorrect, or should we (or our solicitors at the time) picked this up

of course the H/A should have checked the documents before they sent them off, but yes, it was up to you to check the documents you were given. As above, your solicitor would not have seen the flat, so would not be in a position to know whether the plan was correct. They would normally have sent you copies of paperwork and asked you to confirm you were happy with it. If the plan is very obviously wrong - e.g. house instead of flat, then it would be more reasonable to have expected the solicitors to spot it

We are saying yes to all charges at the moment as we have already lost one buyer and our Vendors have kindly hung on for us (we cant lose this house), so we don't want to delay this process any longer. Will we have recourse after completion (should it ever happen) for claiming our costs back once the culpable party has been identified?

yes. You alwasy have a duty to mitigate your losses, so doing what is necessary to avoid losing your sale is appropriate,. However, there may not be a 'culpable party' other than yourselves

I suppose the supplementary question is, who is likely to be the culpable party?


Sorry for the long post.


Thanks in advance