Lack of a copy of coloured Lease Plan

Money_girl

Hi Guys,

I am in process of buying a leasehold flat. A seller does not have a colour copy of the lease. My solicitor adviced that this may complicate the resale of the property in the future.

I am wondering if anyone else had a similar experience?

Thank you.

AdrianC

What about the freeholder?

Land_Registry

Or Land Registry?

I am guessing the solicitor/seller have applied for a copy from us but sometimes the current owner may have only been given a black & white copy by their solicitor when they bought.

As AdrianC posts the freeholder should also have a version and hopefully that is coloured.

Whether it will be important in the future is likely to be down to the advice the buyer receives, in the same way as you are proceeding it seems with the purchase on the same basis.

If the lease simply says the demise is edged in red on the lease plan and it is already registered then the issue/risks may be seen as quite small. If the lease refers to other colours then the issues/risks presumably increase

The devil is always in the detail and then how each party then views the associated issue/risk

tizzle6560

We had a problem with our lease plan as well as it although it highlighted the flat itself in red, and the private garden in green, the actual lease document itself had no reference to the garden in it.

This was a real sticking point and it resulted in a Deed of Variation required, at additional cost, but it will remove the issue later down the line when I come to sell it.

The devil really is in the detail, so make sure you have everything you think you will need when you come to sell, before you complete in the first place.

Money_girl

Thank you everyone for your advice.

The freeholder is almost non-existant. We tried getting in touch with the freeholder regarding other issues but with no success.
The land registry was not contacted yet. I suppose I can try them too.

I will read the lease again. Thanks.

Stefan_R

Hello,

I just came across this discussion. It would be great to hear your thoughts on the following situation:

I am buying a flat, including a share of the freehold. The orignial leaseplan describes the boundary of the property as being marked in red but the actual marking on the plan is in bold black - this is although the document I have is a colour copy (unless it has gone through some editing). Looking at the LR title plan, the property is marked by red edging as one would expect.

This seems as a pretty theoretical problem given that I am also getting a share of the freehold and the only mismatch is effectively the wording in the original leaseplan - nevertheless, is this something to worry about?

Many thanks,
Stefan

3mph

Sounds a bit like you have a colour copy of a plan that was a B&W copy of the original which was coloured in red.

Stefan_R

yeah, that must be the case...would LR hold a coloured copy give that the title plan is having the correct red edging? I would assume they must have received a correct lease title (in colour) from which the title plan has been created.