Issues with title

steviev2

I have had an offer accepted and a mortgage offer on a 2 bed flat conversion within a Victorian house.

My solicitor called me yesterday and said that there was an issue with the title. The house is split into flat A (downstairs) and B (upstairs, which is what I am buying).

The owner of Flat A has a leasehold. The owner of Flat B has the freehold for the entire property. These flats have never ben mortgaged just passed on within the family all these years.

So, what the solicitor said is that while the owner of flat B has the freehold on the entire property, he neither has a leasehold for flat B nor anything in the freehold documents which clearly states that he has occupancy rights to flat B. At least that is what I understood from what the solicitor said.

So, the seller has said they will sort out the issues in the title and that it should not take more than 3-4 weeks. I am a bit sceptical of that claim. Has anyone come across anything similar and how long do these kind of things take to fix?

Cheers.

PasturesNew

If the flat has the freehold and no leasehold, then he needs to just issue himself with a leasehold.... that's what the freeholder has the power to do.

Somebody should've created one when they were split... if it's "in the family" then I can see how easily "nobody ever bothered/didn't think it important".