Leasehold issues

Trickyblues

About 15 years ago we had an issue with the leasehold on our house. A cheque we sent went astray, and rather than telling us, the company took us straight to court! We attended court (the other side did not). The Judge found in our favour, charging costs to the other side. We then received a letter from them saying the lease was now forfeit and the only way to reinstate it was to pay their costs. We took advice and were told we didn't have to pay, but to be aware that if we came to sell or have work done we would need to go back to them to reinstate the lease. We now own the house outright and are considering selling. In the interim the company has gone bankrupt and we cannot contact them.
Any advice we can get would be very gratefully received.
Thank you.

Slithery

You'll need to contact the official receivers to find out who now owns the freehold.

NameUnavailable

Trickyblues said:

About 15 years ago we had an issue with the leasehold on our house. A cheque we sent went astray, and rather than telling us, the company took us straight to court! We attended court (the other side did not). The Judge found in our favour, charging costs to the other side. We then received a letter from them saying the lease was now forfeit and the only way to reinstate it was to pay their costs. We took advice and were told we didn't have to pay, but to be aware that if we came to sell or have work done we would need to go back to them to reinstate the lease. We now own the house outright and are considering selling. In the interim the company has gone bankrupt and we cannot contact them.
Any advice we can get would be very gratefully received.
Thank you.

Just to be precise you don't own the house outright, you own a lease, which is essentially a piece of paper that gives you the right to live there until X date.

I don't understand how the lease could have been forfeited - if that was the case you wouldn't be in the house, as you would have no right to be there. Also the court found in your favour (the court would have decided that the lease had been forfeited).

I would ignore the matter and just press on. Deal with anything else that might come up in the conveyancing process, but it appears that you do own the lease.

The only thing I can think that might have happened is that the terms of the lease allowed the freeholder to charge their legal costs back to you under the service charge, but they would have had to make a formal demand for those.