Lease on a freehold property

katiepmr

I am in the process of buying a house which the title says is freehold but it also says there is a lease on the property going back to 1957. The solicitor has sent me a copy of the lease which gave the original leasee  the right to build a house on the plot and For the leasor to visit the property to check it was in a good state of repair. It also talks about access to sewers, cables etc under the shared drive. None of the names on the lease relate to the people we are buying from and as the person who lived there has passed away there are no records Or anyone to ask. Is it possible for a freehold house to have such a lease still in force? None of the companies or people named on the lease exist anymore, the lease was for 99 years so I am concerned that it is still in force. My solicitor thinks it relates to the shared drive but why then does it mention them visiting the house? Has anyone any idea what this all means? It mentions a peppercorn fee of £13 to be paid annually but there is no record of this having been paid by the previous owner.

NameUnavailable

You're paying your solicitors to advise on these kind of points, it's not good enough for them to tell you 'they think'.

Peppercorn ground rent is that, a peppercorn. £13 isn't peppercorn.

davidmcn

katiepmr said:

Has anyone any idea what this all means?

Your solicitor ought to, since they've seen the titles (and we haven't!).

greatcrested

The names on the lease will be those of the original parties to it when it was created back in 1957. It may have been sold on multiple times since then so the original lease owners of the lease will no longer own it, however their names will remain on the document for ever.

To find out who currently owns it, pay £3 to the Land Registry here and buy the 'leasehold title' That's assuming it is registered, which it will be if it's been bought/sold or mortgaged in the last 40 years or so.

It is likely the lease still is valid and will remain so till 2056, but hopefully the same person owns the freehold and the leasehold titles and is selling both. Buy the freehold title while you are on the LR site and compare the names of owners.

katiepmr

I have a copy of the land registry title and it says it is freehold and that the freehold is owned by the current owner but then it mentions the 1957 lease quoting a section of the lease relating to the shared drive allowing access. On the plan this is highlighted in a different colour. It is only when you read the full lease that it mentions the house.

katiepmr

My solicitor is looking into this but I thought I would investigate as well.

AdrianC

Effectively, you're buying two things. The leasehold house... and the freehold for the plot. So you are both ends of the lease at the same time.

That means you could go through the legals and simply cancel the lease. Or you could leave it as is... like everybody else has done before you.

greatcrested

Is the leasehold title registered at the LR?

Who owns the 'shared drive'? Is it within the boundary of the freehold title (with the neighbour having access rights), or is it within the boundary of the neighbour's Title (with you having access?

So you have a coy of the lease? What does it say about the house?

princeofpounds

Hi OP. Some of the replies you get here may differ as a result of the rather vague explanation you've given. There are two different potential situations here:

1) You are buying a freehold property title and, separately, a leasehold property title to different land. This is not an uncommon arrangement, it can occur for a variety of reasons, usually relating to sticking together two plots of land that have different ownership status histories. But you will need to understand it.

2) Or, you are buying a freehold property title and a leasehold property title that sits underneath that freehold title covering all or part of the same land. Sometimes, this is essentially meaningless - you own both the freehold and the lease, there are no external obligations involved, all that has happened is that the two titles haven't been unified. Sometimes it's meaningful - the lease contains some obligation to external parties and as a result the titles cannot be collapsed into one. That's often used to preserve service charge obligations for supposedly-freehold houses, for example. Or they could unify the titles, but simply haven't bothered.

I'm guessing the second scenario is more likely given what you've said so far. If that's the case, the question is then what the specific point of the lease is or was, and if it has any implications for you.

I agree with nameunavailable - if you don't know what's going on, that's not good enough from your solicitor. Make them explain, accurately. Perhaps they intend to and have only given you a brief heads-up so far, but conveyancing solicitors can be really poor at communicating to the punters at time so they may just skate over it.

katiepmr

thank you for your replies. 

The land registry title states the house and land is freehold and the plan shows the house and garden outlined in red. Half of the shared drive is outlined in red but is shaded blue.
the title then goes on to say it is subject to a conveyance in 1979 when the house was sold to the current owner and then refers to a lease that was written in 1957. It quotes from that lease: that It gives the rights to lay down sewers etc and a right of way to the shared drive area.
later on it states

the land is subject to the following rights reserved by a conveyance of the land in this title dated March 1963 and gives two names that don’t match the lease or any other names on the title.
a) the right to lay down sewers etc
b) the right of passage of water etc
c) the right to lateral and subjacent support to and for the land and all buildings erected

(The above is what is written in the lease of 1957)

The solicitor requested a copy of the lease and in this it was obviously written when the house was built as it gave the original Leasee the right to build a house on the plot and that once the house was built it talks about shared access to the drive, but also that the house would be inspected twice per year to check it was in a good state of repair, It is a 99 year lease.

Not sure if any of this helps make sense of it all. The names on the original lease are two companies which strangely have the same address but neither of which exist anymore.

My solicitor has sent enquiries to the sellers solicitor asking for further information.

greatcrested

You have still not answered the question as to whether the leasehold title is registered and if yes, who owns it.

Have you been on to the Land Registry site yet? It would take you 3 minutes to check, and £3 to download the leasehold title if there.