Leasehold House - Pre-Assignment Information Pack delay

MWJ8890

Hi All, First time post and looking for a little advice.

I am very close to exchange of contract/completion but there has been a delay now for nearly 6 weeks where we are awaiting the Pre-Assignment Information Pack from the landlords of the leasehold.

The vendor has said he has never paid any ground rent. the leasehold is from 1892 and is a a 999 year lease. from what i can find legible to read from the draft lease the solicitor has sent me the leasehold is for a plot of land that now sits 10 houses and is by the local vicar of the time.

My concerns are that there seems to be a lack of clarification on the leasehold and with the vendor never paying any ground rent and stating the property is freehold originally.

i have done a lot of research today and the vicar who originally signed the lease was from a local parish that does not seem to exist anymore. I have found out that he was the vicar of a church that has now closed down.

My solicitor says we just need to await for the Pre-Assignment Information Pack to arrive from the vendor who has supposedly requested it but the vendor has already stated that he is not aware of any ground rent / leasehold.

What happens if we never get this information? can we exchange and complete without it and just get good leasehold title indemnity insurance to cover any issues there may be in the future?

I need to exchange and complete asap, i gave notice to my landlord under the advise i received as i was told i would be in before mid-march. my tenancy has now ended and i am back at the parents on the sofa!

MWJ8890

Anyone able to give me some advice on this?

Thanks

Tiglet2

Sometimes vendors are confused by the whole freehold/leasehold tenure. It may be that this is an old lease which is now invalid or it is a leasehold property with a 999 lease. Your solicitor will have obtained all appropriate documents he needs from Land Registry, from the seller's solicitor and it is his job to ensure you are buying a sound property. Your solicitor will not exchange/complete without a satisfactory response to leasehold enquiries, whether this be by assignment pack or the form LPE1. The vendor does have to pay for the pack before it is supplied, assuming there is one. The ground rent will most likely be a "peppercorn" and therefore is not actually collected in practice.

One thing to note - you should never give notice to your landlord until you have exchanged. This advice is widely available and your solicitor would not have advised you to do otherwise.

Unfortunately you will have to wait now until your solicitor is satisfied with answers to enquiries and is then in a position to exchange.

StumpyPumpy

First thing I'd want to get checked is whether the "Vicar" who signed the lease did so on his own behalf or as a representative of the church, and more specifically, if so whether the lease has a chancel repair liability clause. see https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/apr/23/archaic-tax-may-be-answer-to-church-of-englands-repairs-bill-prayers for more info.

SP

MWJ8890

Tiglet2 wrote: »

Sometimes vendors are confused by the whole freehold/leasehold tenure. It may be that this is an old lease which is now invalid or it is a leasehold property with a 999 lease. Your solicitor will have obtained all appropriate documents he needs from Land Registry, from the seller's solicitor and it is his job to ensure you are buying a sound property. Your solicitor will not exchange/complete without a satisfactory response to leasehold enquiries, whether this be by assignment pack or the form LPE1. The vendor does have to pay for the pack before it is supplied, assuming there is one. The ground rent will most likely be a "peppercorn" and therefore is not actually collected in practice.

One thing to note - you should never give notice to your landlord until you have exchanged. This advice is widely available and your solicitor would not have advised you to do otherwise.

Unfortunately you will have to wait now until your solicitor is satisfied with answers to enquiries and is then in a position to exchange.

I admit there was a slight miscommunication with regards to handing in my notice on the flat. so lets ignore that for now!

I am concerned that we are never going to get to the bottom of this leasehold query as no one can answer the questions. what would happen then?

MWJ8890

StumpyPumpy wrote: »

First thing I'd want to get checked is whether the "Vicar" who signed the lease did so on his own behalf or as a representative of the church, and more specifically, if so whether the lease has a chancel repair liability clause. see URL more info.

SP

Thanks for your reply. unfortunately the lease was signed in 1982, i do have a copy of the 'draft lease' it was signed by several people, and from what i can make out the land was leased before any houses was built on it so it referrers to a plot of land which now has multiple houses on it.