50 yrs lease remaining?

rabialiones

posting on behalf of a frantic colleague.
bought house 5 years ago , asked solicitor about lease who she is adamant said it was freehold.
now after some discussions at work she decided to look at paperwork for house and came across land registery docs. which stated only 50 years remaining.
this was never brought to her attention by the solicitor. she is frantic with worry now as to what steps she should take.
if she had been made aware of this at the time of purchase , she would have negotiated price or not gone ahead with purchase
can she go back to solicitor , would house insurance legal cover if she needs it
please help her , she is very stressed
thanks

Westminster

I imagine that if the paperwork is accurate (i.e. reflecting the leasehold) then she will have extreme difficulty proving a solicitor has verbally suggested it was freehold.

Does she have any paper / email trail to back up what she says the solicitor said?

Freecall

It sounds as if there maybe some crossed wires here. A solicitor is unlikely to confuse Freehold/Leasehold.

Does she not have a mortgage?

rabialiones

its an old victorian terrace, she took out a mortgage when buying property

unfortunately, she does not have any evidence , it was just a verbal question and she did not check paperwork herself as she thought everything would be ok as she relied on solictors professional expertise to see all paperwork would be ok.

when i bought my property , i can remember my solicitor whilst looking at documents , searches etc did check over the lease of the property and informed me accordingly
which was not done in her case.
it looks like he may have overlooked or skimmed some documents
would her house insurance legal team support her if she has to take this further.?
she has changed insurers a few times since purchase

AFF8879

rabialiones wrote: »

its an old victorian terrace, she took out a mortgage when buying property

Has the terrace been carved up into multiple flats/dwellings?

rabialiones

no, its her residential house

Lioness_Twinkletoes

Can you post the Land Reg doc on here? Obviously redact any personal information. I think she's read it wrong.

rabialiones

i will ask her for it and post it

Westminster

Without any proof of malpractice I wouldn't expect this to progress any further as it will be vigorously defended by the professional indemnity insurance.

davidmcn

May be useful to find out what the solicitors told the lender about the tenure (as that would have been in writing).

Solicitors would seem to be on shaky ground if they can't prove that they told/warned clients that they were only getting a 50 year lease. Especially if it had been marketed as freehold.

Freecall

rabialiones wrote: »

......she took out a mortgage when buying property

In that case I very much doubt that it is leasehold with only 50 years to run.

What documents do you have?

I suspect that there are some significant misunderstandings here.