Bought a leasehold property but the freehold has never been registered.

dangers

Apologies first of all if this is in the wrong place but I wasn't quite sure where it needed to go.

We bought a leasehold detached house just over two years ago. Just after we moved in, we were in discussion with the management company over the purchase of the freehold. We agreed a price which we subsequently paid.

About a month later, we received a letter stating that the freehold title was not actually registered and therefore we could not go ahead (we had to request the money back as well!). The letter then states that their retained solicitors had been instructed to rectify the matter.

Nearly two years on and several phone calls and emails later, we are no further forward.

Has anyone had experience of this before and can therefore advise us on how we can rectify this issue as the company appear to be ignoring us!

Many thanks

AdrianC

One for the Land Registry rep, I think.

It's not unusual for a property or freehold for sale not to have been registered before - but it sounds as if there's problems proving who owns it, without which it can't be registered.

dangers

I believe you may be right - I hope they pick this up.....

G_M

Many Titles, freehold and leasehold, (though an ever decreasing number as time passes) are not registered. In itself this is not an issue.

40 years ago, NO Titles (well, very few) were registered, and sales went through all the time. It just requires a different process to prove ownership.

In this case, either

* the seller has changed their mind about selling or
* their solicitor is incompetant or
* there is atually a problem proving ownership

find out which and proceed accordingly!

dangers

G_M, the company are just being very evasive and will not answer accordingly. It would appear that it's one of the two bottom ones you've mentioned.

I've since found out about the Leasehold advisory service. They may be getting a call in the morning.

jamei305

You solicitor should have checked this during your purchase and shouldn't have let you proceed without proof of who owned the freehold (or appropriate indemnity insurance). You should give them a call and ask for them to forward the info from their file.

Land_Registry

What class of leasehold title do you have?

If 'absolute' then proof of the landlord's ability to grant the lease is likely to have been shown when the lease was registered so that may allay some concerns around proving title to the freehold.

If 'good' then that suggests some concerns as no such evidence would have been supplied and/or they simply applied for good leasehold at that time

As others have posted if the freehold has not changed hands over time then it would not be registered until they voluntarily decide to do so or they sell it for example.

The advisory service will be able to cover what happens in such scenarios where the freehold is unregistered and if you are successful in buying it then that would trigger registration of course.

dangers

We've now checked the lease and it would appear that we have 'good' title.

As expected, we have heard nothing at all from the management company who receive our ground rent every year. It's all so annoying.

Thank you all for taking the time to respond.