head lease query.

eryinera

Firstly an apology.
I use this forum a lot for information and usually can find the answers i need without having to start up a post of my own but looking after a newborn has limited my research time for this (to me) complex issue! - could just be baby brain though!

OK background: (and again im sorry if i use the wrong terms i am just starting out in this whole new exciting journey of property ownership!)
so way back in 2010 I brought a flat. It had a service charge to one company (A) and a ground rent to another company (B). After several years (A) made a ridiculous hike in service charge and started to charge us for stuff we didn't even have like security guards and electric fence management. needless to say we got rid of them via right to manage which meant the residents set up our own company (C) and we got a management services company (D) to help us with the day to day maintenance and bigger things like repairs. Recently the original landlords(?) (B) decided to sell their investment to another company (E).

So now we pay ground rent to (E) service charges to (D) and (D) are being used by our own company (C) to manage the maintenance and repairs and handle the money and sinking fund etc.

Here's my problem. (D) the management services company we use have just sent me a letter saying I am in breech of a clause in a "head lease".

When I purchased the property and I have been through everything there was no mention of a head lease and to the best of my recollection I cannot recall ever signing such a document as I would surely have questioned the clause I am in breach of! Due to having an uncle who is a criminal lawyer it has been drummed into me to read everything before signing! Now admittingly after looking through all the documentation my solicitors and I went through upon purchasing the house we did not ask for information about a head lease in fact there is no paper documentation about it at all. Maybe I was naive as I didn't know such a thing existed as it was my first purchase, but surely the solicitor should have known about such a thing and informed me at point of sale or asked the original owner if such a thing existed isn't that why I sought legal advice in the first place from the professionals? Anyway we can argue about that another time.
My current problem is what to do about this clause breech of a document i have never seen of heard of! who would own it? how can i see it? is it enforceable without me signing it? which company would have written the head lease? and is there any way i can ask to see if changes could be made to it so I am not in breach of this clause?

any advice or information would be helpful!
Thanks in advance
-Nikita-

G_M

1) Might they simply be referring to your lease? Admttedly use of the term Head Lease usualy implies there is also a subordinate lease, but strictly it jst refers to the first lease granted by the freeholder.

2) Check the Land Registry here to see how many leases are registered.

3) what does the alleged breach consist of? Does it relate to a clause in your lease?

eryinera

1) i never received any lease as such just a "leasehold information form", on this form there is the question is there a head lease and is there an under lease both of which are blank.

2) the land registry information has this information: with identifiers removed. ( because hey who knows who's reading this!)
1st page

title Number : [#number]
Address of Property : [ our address ]
Price Stated : [ the amount we paid for the flat]
Registered Owner(s) : [my name ] of [my address]
Lender(s) : None

2nd page

A: Property Register
This register describes the land and estate comprised in the title. Except as mentioned below, the title includes any legal easements granted by the registered lease but is subject to any rights that it reserves, so far as those easements and rights exist and benefit or affect the registered land.
[area]
1 (07.2005) The Leasehold land shown edged with red on the plan of the above Title filed at the Registry and being [my address]
NOTE: As to the parts tinted pink and blue on the title plan only the ground floor apartment is included in the title.
2 (07.2005) Short particulars of the lease(s) (or under-lease(s)) under which the land is held:
Date : June 2005
Term : 999 years from June 2005
Parties : (1)[ Original leeseholders (B) ]
(2) [Name of someone I've not heard of but who shares the forename of the previous owner of the flat]

3 (07.2005) There are excepted from the effect of registration all estates, rights, interests, powers and remedies arising upon, or by reason of, any dealing made in breach of the prohibition or restriction against dealings therewith inter vivos contained in the Lease.
4 (07.2005) The mines and minerals are excepted.
5 (07.2005) The Conveyance dated 4 January 1963 referred to in the Charges Register contains the following provision:
"IT IS HEREBY AGREED AND DECLARED that nothing herein contained or implied shall give to the Purchaser any right of light or air or other easement over the Vendors said adjoining land and premises so as to prevent the Vendor from building on any part of such adjoining property up to the extreme boundary of the property hereby conveyed and to any height or in any way restrict the user by the Vendor of any part of its said adjoining property and that the Vendor may at any time hereafter convey demise or otherwise deal with all or any part of its said adjoining property free from or subject to any covenants or otherwise as the Vendor may think fit"
6 (07.2005) The landlord's title is registered.
7 Unless otherwise mentioned the title includes any legal easements granted by the registered lease(s) but is subject to any rights that it reserves, so far as those easements and rights exist and benefit or affect the registered land.
B: Proprietorship Register
This register specifies the class of title and identifies the owner. It contains any entries that affect the right of disposal.
Title number [#number]
2 of 3
Title absolute
1 (06.2010) PROPRIETOR: [My name] of [my address]
2 (06.2010) The price stated to have been paid on 2 June 2010 was [£price paid]
C: Charges Register
This register contains any charges and other matters that affect the land.

3) 1, a storage container at the back of the property
2, a cat i've had since 2007 (i.e. before we brought the flat and who has been living there for the past 7 years with no mention of it, and other people in the flat also have cats 1 has a dog)

eddddy

If there is a head lease, the structure will probably be as follows:

Freeholder -> Head leaseholder -> leaseholder (you)

I.e. Your lease is between you and the Head leaseholder (you have no relationship with the freeholder).

Or put another way, the freeholder leases to the head leaseholder, and then the head leaseholder sub-leases to you.


The bottom line is you have to stick to the covenants in your lease - but not in any other lease.

(Assuming the leases were drawn up properly, the covenants in the superior lease should match the covenants in your lease anyway.)

da_rule

When you searched the Land Registry for your title information were there 3 results for your property (one freehold and 2 leasehold) or just 2 results (one freehold and one leasehold)?

eryinera

da_rule:
There were 2.
1 freehold, 1 leasehold.

eryinera

eddddy:
If I've not seen any lease - purely this "lease information form" which has no mention of head lease or sublease (well it does but both boxes are blank) how would I be able to obtain a copy. Were they required to show it me when I purchased the flat? And whats the legal standpoint if I never signed such a document?

the "Assuming they were drawn up properly" line cracked me up, you haven't had experience with the initial free holders. I don't trust anything that has passed through their hands to have done right (long story short they upped the prices 750% one year then swanned off saying there was nothing in the sinking fund despite us having a statement saying 1 month before they "swanned off" there was about £10,000 in there then had the cheek to demand us all pay further money for expenses incurred when our right to manage company took over. they also charged us for stuff we didn't have such as security guards and electric fences and CCTV upkeep and maintenance which we didn't have.)

eddddy

eryinera wrote: »

If I've not seen any lease - purely this "lease information form" which has no mention of head lease or sublease (well it does but both boxes are blank) how would I be able to obtain a copy. Were they required to show it me when I purchased the flat? And whats the legal standpoint if I never signed such a document?

You wouldn't have signed the lease.

As an illustration, you can think of lease as a document that says something vaguely equivalent to:

"The owner of this document is allowed to live in flat 5, Acacia Avenue until 1st August 2117."

And you bought that document.

The document (or lease) also includes a list of things that you must/mustn't do. Having bought the lease, you are bound by those terms. And it sounds like you have breached one of those terms.

You definitely should have seen a copy of the lease when you bought. Land Registry probably have a copy stored electronically. You can order a copy from them.

G_M

You have a lease. Your Title document above states:

"The Leasehold land shown edged with red..." (and other references to leasehold).

There were 2.
1 freehold, 1 leasehold.

There is only one lease, therefore your lease is the Head Lease. (I assume yo purchased the leasehold documnet which names you as the owner).

You should have received a copy of the lease when you purchased it.
* ask your solicitor if he has a copy (or the original)?
* check your documents again - it would be very surprising if you were not sent it.
* check the Land Registry again to see if they have a copy of the lease. You could ring them, quote the Title number and ask. If they have a copy, for £7 they will send it to you. Form OC2 here)

In the property regisister:

Parties : (1)[ Original leeseholders (B) ]
(2) [Name of someone I've not heard of but who shares the forename of the previous owner of the flat]

1) will be the original freeholder who, in 2005, sold tthe lease to the original leaseholder (2).

The original freeholder (1) may have sold the freehold since 2005 so it may now be owned by someone else.

The original leaseholder has sold the lease (perhaps more than once) so it is now owned by someone else (you).

Not sure about th storage container, but presumably there is a 'no pets' clause in the lease. The fact that others have pets does nott make yours OK.

I often speed on the mororway, but if caught I cannot escape prosecution by saying that other people were also speeding!