Selling leasehold but freehold has never been registered

Smurray123

Hi everyone

Just wanted some thoughts/advice on this.

I’m selling a leasehold flat and it’s all been going through really smoothly but today we’ve hit a bit of a snag.
The land registry has the details about our ownership of the leasehold but apparently the title for the freehold has never been registered.
I’m now super worried that everything is going to fall through, that we’re going to lose the sale of our flat and in turn, lose the house that we have offered on.

Just wondered if anyone has had experience with something similar and knows how long it might take to sort?

Our solicitor has told us to go back to the person we made the purchase through and ask them what’s happened and we have left a message for him.
Would we be able to continue with the sell of our flat without the freeholder title?
Who is likely to have the freeholder title deeds? The block of flats belongs to Barrett’s so I’m wondering if we should contact them for this info?

Any advice at all would be really appreciated, thank you!

G_M

I'm surprised it's an issue.


You are sellig the lease, not the freehold. If the lease is registered, you simply sell the registered lease surely......?

ThePants999

Do you actually know who the freeholder is, and they've simply not registered their ownership? Or is that uncertain too? (Appreciate you mentioned Barratt, but developers tend to sell the freehold once they're finished...)

I agree with G_M that it's not a technical issue, but I can see why it might cause problems. With an unregistered freehold, you need some pretty solid proof that the person/organisation claiming to be the freeholder actually is. Otherwise you're running a risk that someone's going to come along later and demand you pay them years of ground rent that you think you've already paid, and require you to undo the alterations you've made that you thought you already got freeholder permission for. Or there's going to be a problem with the building structure, and the "freeholder" disappears. It's all incredibly unlikely, but people are already fearful of buying leasehold, so even these minor concerns might tip a nervous buyer into "not worth the risk" territory.

Smurray123

Thank you for your replies - I thought the same as you both and wondered why it would be an issue but now totally understand.
Will contact Barratts first thing tomorrow to find out if they’re still the freeholder, finger crossed!

Tom99

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Who do you pay ground rent, insurance and service charges to?[/FONT]

Smurray123

We pay that to a separate management company, we requested a management pack from them with all the info about ground rent etc but they’ve told our solicitor that they don’t have info on the freehold title :-(

davidmcn

Smurray123 wrote: »

We pay that to a separate management company, we requested a management pack from them with all the info about ground rent etc but they’ve told our solicitor that they don’t have info on the freehold title :-(

Presumably they know who they're collecting it for though?

Richard_Webster

If the freeholder acquired the freehold before compulsory registration in the area it wouldn't need to be registered. How do you think people managed before Land Registration?

Tom99

Smurray123 wrote: »

We pay that to a separate management company, we requested a management pack from them with all the info about ground rent etc but they’ve told our solicitor that they don’t have info on the freehold title :-(

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]But they must know who the freeholder is, they are working for them.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]It seems very strange that Barrett would develop land they had not registered. Is it possible their title is for a much larger area of land than just your block of flats.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]This map website might be helpful.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]https://www.nimbusmaps.co.uk/[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]You have to sign up but it is free. You can view all the registered title boundaries in your search area, then click within a particular title and it will give you the title number and often the owner if it is a company.[/FONT]

G_M

or do a map enquiry here on the land registry site:


https://eservices.landregistry.gov.uk/eservices/FindAProperty/view/MapEnquiryInit.do;jsessionid=yYASSxykGXtbSAQDqaFvNYPzzy5ghG48mq0iEVDJ.34c0d34c:frontend-web-0