Couples as transferee's on TR1

Andorin91

Hi,

I own a first floor flat in a converted house, which contains another flat on the ground floor. There is a shared freehold owned by the lease-holders of the two flats (myself and the person downstairs). The person downstairs is selling his flat, and I have been given a TR1 and a ID1 to sign the freehold over to the new owners.

I am down as a Transferor and a Transferee. The new owners have but both husband and wife down as Transferee. This means there will be two of them, against one of me. Do voting rights exist in any sense with shared freeholds? Should I ask that only one of them be on the freehold, or perhaps put my partner on the freehold as well?

We've been rendered a little suspicious about this as the seller has told our tenant that he is not selling the flat, all the while as he arranges the TR1 form with us. There's no way that we could be doing anything stupid here, like signing away our property, by doing this is there?

Thanks

loubel

You should have a declaration of trust setting out how the ownership of the freehold works - shares of equity, decision-making, requirement to transfer freehold on sale of leasehold etc. If you don't have this already then I would strongly suggest you get this set up at the same time as the sale. You would be sensible to instruct your own solicitor to advise you and do the drafting.

Even if you don't do this, if you are unsure what you are being asked to sign you should seek legal advice on it before doing so!

Land_Registry

As you are aware the freehold title needs to change hands as well and it is important to do this - sometimes owners forget and this creates problems in the future.

As loubel rightly points out you (and the new owners) need to consider what may happen in the future. That would not only apply to voting rights for example but also say for example if you were to pass away - how would your beneficiaries for example be protected.

Something to certainly take legal advice on