Any experience/knowledge of protected lease on freehold residential property?

jenm2492

There's a house for sale that we were going to offer on but the estate agent notified us that the house, although freehold, has a protected lease.  We asked for more info but that's all they knew.  They said we would need to contact their solicitor to find out more.  Unfortunately, we use the same solicitor as the sellers of the house so our solicitor is unable to advise.
For background, home owner had passed away, house sold at an auction back in December, and is now up for sale again.  Apparently one sale on the property has already fallen through because of this protected lease.
Just wondering if anyone has had any experience or knowledge of what a protected lease is on a residential property and what it means?  No luck from Google - all appear to be related to landlord/tenant issues which I don't think is the same.
Any comments appreciated!

SDLT_Geek

Perhaps they mean there is a Rent Act protected tenant occupying the property.  That gives life time protection.
It looks like you can search here by post code: https://www.gov.uk/check-register-rents 

user1977

It means there's a tenant in there, who will even more difficult to shift than one under a "normal" modern lease. I expect it's being sold as an investment property, so if you're looking for somewhere to live I would pass on this and look elsewhere.