Old lease in charges on freehold title

katiepmr

Have previously asked about this but have now got more information. To recap, we are in the process of purchasing a semi detached freehold property. All was going well until the solicitor found that in the charges section of the title it mentions a 99 year lease set up when the house was built in 1957. The solicitor sent us a copy of the lease and it gives information about access to a shared drive but also states about the property being inspected to check it is in a good state of repair. There is also a small fee of £13 per year. The lease is between two companies that no longer exist. The house has had 3 different conveyances since then and none of the ex owners are around to ask about the lease. The land registry only have records of the freehold title, there is no separate lease title, even though the lease has a land registry stamp on it. The plan for the lease highlights the exact same land as the plan for the freehold title.

My solicitor has requested further information from the seller but they are having difficulty finding out anything about the lease and this is holding up the sale big time!
I have since found out that the adjoining semi has the same lease mentioned in the charges on its title, however on that title it says the lease has been determined. Also the property that shares our drive has no mention at all of a lease on its title.
Does this mean that It would have been determined on our property too? If not how can we get it determined when there are no records of the parties involved in setting up the lease? Our solicitor has asked if we still want to go ahead with the purchase.

cooltt

katiepmr said:

Have previously asked about this but have now got more information. To recap, we are in the process of purchasing a semi detached freehold property. All was going well until the solicitor found that in the charges section of the title it mentions a 99 year lease set up when the house was built in 1957. The solicitor sent us a copy of the lease and it gives information about access to a shared drive but also states about the property being inspected to check it is in a good state of repair. There is also a small fee of £13 per year. The lease is between two companies that no longer exist. The house has had 3 different conveyances since then and none of the ex owners are around to ask about the lease. The land registry only have records of the freehold title, there is no separate lease title, even though the lease has a land registry stamp on it. The plan for the lease highlights the exact same land as the plan for the freehold title.

My solicitor has requested further information from the seller but they are having difficulty finding out anything about the lease and this is holding up the sale big time!
I have since found out that the adjoining semi has the same lease mentioned in the charges on its title, however on that title it says the lease has been determined. Also the property that shares our drive has no mention at all of a lease on its title.
Does this mean that It would have been determined on our property too? If not how can we get it determined when there are no records of the parties involved in setting up the lease? Our solicitor has asked if we still want to go ahead with the purchase.

Although it is their job to make sure everything is in order solicitors don't half make a drama out of nothing. It's just to demonstrate how oh so clever they are and they really are worth the ridiculous fees they charge.

The only title that matters is the one now with the land registry and they damn well know this. If the freeholder of the lease went bankrupt at some point in the past and nobody came forward to claim the freehold, then it went back to the crown. That's right, Queen Liz hovers up all unclaimed freeholds! Anyway you can buy the freeehold off the crown and then merge any leashold tilte into it so basically your just left with the freehold, the leasehold tile is dissolved. Sometimes both tiltes are listed with the land registry often it's just the freehold title that is left. I suspect a previous owner of the property has paid for, and followed this course of action.

Tell your drama queen solicitor to proceed with the purchase and if they start throwing out hysterical warnings of someone coming back from the dead to chase you over the lease just take out an indemnity policy against it, cost you £50 or something.

davidmcn

cooltt said:

Anyway you can buy the freeehold off the crown and then merge any leashold tilte into it so basically your just left with the freehold

Irrespective of how you got the freehold title, you can only merge the leasehold title into it if you also own the leasehold title. The risk is that there is another party who still owns the leasehold.