House freehold & leasehold owned by different companies, so what did my Granddad buy?

ic

I've been dealing with my Granddad's accounts following his death a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately for us, his will names the solicitor that drew up the will as his executor. I've been sorting out what I can, and been trying to get my head around what is left to be handled by this solicitor under probate.

One of those things is the ownership of his home, which will be transferring to my grandmother.

Looking at the deeds, my Granddad bought the house at auction in 1947 with his Aunt. In 1953 she died, and the ownership was transferred to him (paperwork confirms this). In the 70s he finished paying the mortgage, and the deeds were returned to him by the building society.

I've downloaded the freehold and leasehold documents from the land registry, and my Granddad's name doesn't feature anywhere. Instead the house looks to be registered along with others on the same and nearby roads.

The freehold is owned by "Backfield (2003) Ltd" in London, with a charge against it by Deutsche Bank (this looks to be connected to the Tchenguiz Group).
The leasehold is owned by "Tapestart Ltd" in Swansea (part of the Compton Group).

Now my granddad did get a letter back in the early 2000's from the Compton Group about the leasehold prompting him to pay ground rent - something he'd never done (or been asked to do) since he bought the house in the 40s. He panicked at the time and paid up, and paid by direct debit ever since - nobody qualified ever followed up on this.

Does this all sound normal? How can it be that he has bought a house, but companies appear to hold both the freehold and leasehold - in that case what did my Granddad actually buy? Could the conveyancing get ugly?

xylophone

The solicitor is the executor and it seems to me you had better let him sort this out?

theartfullodger

On the basis of what you tell us - both leasehold & freehold are owned by companies - grandad didn't own the place & it won't be going to grandmum. Sorry.

camptownraces

It's likely that Tapestart is the "head leaseholder" and leases all the properties from the freeholder (Backfield, the superior landlord).

Tapestart then subleases to people like grandad who are actual occupiers.

Not sure how much of this intermediate layer would be obvious from the HM Land Registry documents that you can download online. You may have to phone them

AdrianC

ic wrote: »

Looking at the deeds, my Granddad bought the house at auction in 1947 with his Aunt. In 1953 she died, and the ownership was transferred to him (paperwork confirms this). In the 70s he finished paying the mortgage, and the deeds were returned to him by the building society.

I've downloaded the freehold and leasehold documents from the land registry, and my Granddad's name doesn't feature anywhere. Instead the house looks to be registered along with others on the same and nearby roads.

If he paid the mortgage off in the '70s, it's unlikely to be registered - so you aren't seeing his registration.

Does this all sound normal? How can it be that he has bought a house, but companies appear to hold both the freehold and leasehold - in that case what did my Granddad actually buy? Could the conveyancing get ugly?

Take the deeds to a solicitor. If it isn't registered, the deeds are his ownership.

ic

Thanks, I've scanned through the deeds again (at least those I can read, not the scrawly text of those from 130 years ago...) and it does seem to read that the freehold is for the wider estate, then that there were leases for various plots, and that my Granddad had one of them.

Sets my mind at rest.

AnotherJoe

Before you hand them over to the solicitor, take copies.