Merge two freehold titles under same mortgage

EmsHonie

Hi,

I’m struggling to find information online that isn’t about merging leasehold and freehold. We are remortgaging our house and part of the garden is a separate title, but is listed on the main title. Our lender has asked for these to be merged but a solicitor I spoke with advises this can be very difficult and complex. We would need to merge under the existing mortgage company and she says they need to give permission for this but I can’t find anything online to give guidance at all.

We jointly own both titles (married) and the mortgage covers both, both are freehold.

The only information I have found for both titles being freehold is a yahoo answers response saying they will consider (land registry) merging under these circumstances for a fee.

I wondered if anyone has any experience of this as it’s causing me some anxiety. Our broker is advising to walk away but we are financially approved and this is the last hurdle, it’s taken a long 2 months to get to this point and there’s no gaurantee we won’t do the whole process again elsewhere and then have the same issue.

Thanks.

Land_Registry

Merger is a term used when merging a lease into its superior title, normally a freehold.

If you have two freehold, one for house and one for the garden then it's an Amalgamation. The two can be amalgamated providing they are the same class of title e.g Absolute/Absolute and held in same capacity e.g identical owners as joint tenants say. There is a registration fee of £40.

From a purely registration perspective there is no need to amalgamate. Two titles is the same as one in many ways. But some lenders like what they see as a 'tidy' situation where it's all in one title. Why I don't know but they can presumably explain as after all it reads like you were able to buy/mortgage it as two titles first time round so what's changed? Just the lender I assume

We have a backlog of work at the moment so would refuse any amalgamation request unless evidence was submitted giving a good reason for doing so. Although we don't see it as necessary if it's a deal breaker re you getting the mortgage or not then that should be good enough for us to consider it but we'd need that evidence submitted

silvercar

Will the new lender accept you agreeing to sort it within a few months of remortgaging? That would mean that it is their legal department that you need to deal with, rather than your current lender.

Onlyforboards

Hi Emshonie, did you manage to resolve this? I am also having issues with lending on more than one title.