Add my wife's name to the property - confused about what solicitor said - need help!

ileven1225

Hi everyone,

Hope you are doing OK in this pandemic. We got a question which our solicitor seems unhelpful to answer it and let me know if you could provide more details or guidance.

My wife has no job and we have agreed to add her name into a property I owned so that she could have rental income. Everything was completed in June 2019 which was told by my solicitor (trust of declaration, co-ownership form, etc), and we only need to wait the Land Registration process to complete. However, it has been a long time for Land Registration process to complete and when we asked the solicitor who always said it was due to pandemic and everything was slow down. It made perfect sense to us. Last week, the solicitor sent us another form to sign - J16a, Indemnity for lost certificate, Stock transfer form. We were totally confused and we never thought the process was still on going and we never thought the co-ownership would link to share and stock.......

After conversation with the solicitor who told us that the management company on behalf of freehold landlord (the related property is leasehold) asked us to sign this form. However, the solicitor would not give more details about what happened and why it took a year, but insisted us to sign the form ASAP. When I purchased the property, I was not aware of the leasholder holding shares from the freehold. In addition, one of the form is Indemnity for lost certificate...... is there a certificate lost? My solicitor kept silient on those questions but said please sign the forms.......

I could not sign the forms without knowing what I am signing for but i could not get any more information from my solicitor. My question is that if it is a normal process and if anyone has similar experience that can share?

Much appreciated in advance and stay safe.

greatcrested

So it appears you own a leasehold property (a flat?), and also a share of the freehold for the building.

The freehold is owned by a company and you are a shareholder in the company (hence your share in the frehold).

As a shareholder you have a share certificate - it may be this that has been lost.

Or on completion of the transfer, a new share certificate in the joint names of you and your wife will be issued and it may be this that is lost.

Either way, the lost certificat will need to be replaced, or indemnity taken out,so I would sign and return the form as requested.

Unless, of course, I am totally wrong. If I'm right I'm surprised you are ot aware you own a share of the company that owns the freehold - you must have been informed of this when you bought (as well as signing documents) and should surely have received annual reports too.

ileven1225

greatcrested said:

So it appears you own a leasehold property (a flat?), and also a share of the freehold for the building.

The freehold is owned by a company and you are a shareholder in the company (hence your share in the frehold).

As a shareholder you have a share certificate - it may be this that has been lost.

Or on completion of the transfer, a new share certificate in the joint names of you and your wife will be issued and it may be this that is lost.

Either way, the lost certificat will need to be replaced, or indemnity taken out,so I would sign and return the form as requested.

Unless, of course, I am totally wrong. If I'm right I'm surprised you are ot aware you own a share of the company that owns the freehold - you must have been informed of this when you bought (as well as signing documents) and should surely have received annual reports too.

Thanks for the reply and it makes sense. I purchased the flat in 2012 and I could not recall if I signed any document showing shares owned by the flat owner. I never have received any annual reports either. That is why we were surprised by what solicitor told us. I just logged in the account of the management company who is on behalf of the freehold, I used this account to pay annual ground rent, I searched all documents there but did not find anything related to shares.

Do you think it is normal that leaseholders own shares of freeholders? We also purchased our residential flat (leaseholders) and again we are not aware of shares either.

cattie

I live in a flat which has a 999yr lease, but also own a share of the freehold along with other leaseholders. It is very common with leasehold properties to also have a share of the freehold. 

greatcrested

Look up the name of the freehold company at Companies House.

Yes, it is one fairly common way in which freeholds are owned.

ileven1225

greatcrested said:

Look up the name of the freehold company at Companies House.

Yes, it is one fairly common way in which freeholds are owned.

Thanks and can you please tell me why i need to look up the freehold company?