Deed of Variation

jarv81178

So I'm in a chain and been waiting to move for 6 months now. My buyers new solicitor says the loft space is not included in sale of the property so now we need a Deed of Variation  to change contents of the lease.
I have just paid for this Deed Of Variation to be raised, What are the chances of it being created by my freeholders solicitor, checked by my solicitor and my buyers solicitor?

Can this be done in 5 days?

GDB2222

No. Not a chance. 5 months? 5 weeks, perhaps.

jarv81178

it's just a document that needs to say that the flat owners own the loft space and for it to be checked by 2 other solicitors

jarv81178

GDB2222 said:

No. Not a chance. 5 months? 5 weeks, perhaps.

even if everyone is saying it's extremely urgent otherwise the chain will break?

eddddy

So the loft currently belongs to the freeholder, and they're adding it to the demise of your flat - is that right?

Is the freeholder giving you the loft for "free"? Have they agreed to that?

I would have expected the freeholder to charge you a chunk of money, as they're effectively selling the loft to you.


I guess you'll need a new lease plan as well, is that underway? Are you taking over responsibly for maintenance of the loft area? If so, that might involve changes to other peoples leases as well.  This might involve a lot of negotiations.

canaldumidi

jarv81178 said:

it's just a document that needs to say that the flat owners own the loft space and for it to be checked by 2 other solicitors

The freeholder may not agree. Or may agree but want paying for the increased value in your flat that extra space will provide. Or may want to 'think it over'.

Then he may want to instruct a surveyor to draw up a new lease plan, which will involve a visit by the surveyor. As well as the variation to the lease itself.

All of which will involve post going back and forth, and the variatious actions going onto the respective people's 'to do' lists'.

As GDB222 says, 5 weeks is possible. Could be 5 months.

jarv81178 said:

even if everyone is saying it's extremely urgent otherwise the chain will break?

The freeholder and his surveyor/solicitor(s) really won't care about that.

user1977

jarv81178 said:

GDB2222 said:

No. Not a chance. 5 months? 5 weeks, perhaps.

even if everyone is saying it's extremely urgent otherwise the chain will break?

Why would the freeholder or their solicitor care about your chain and its preferred timescales? I mean, they might be helpful, if they've got nothing better to do with their time, but I wouldn't be holding my breath.

Why are your buyers raising this fundamental issue at the last minute? It might be a better use of the 5 days for them to decide to take a view on the fact they're not getting any title to the loft.

GDB2222

user1977 said:

jarv81178 said:

GDB2222 said:

No. Not a chance. 5 months? 5 weeks, perhaps.

even if everyone is saying it's extremely urgent otherwise the chain will break?

Why would the freeholder or their solicitor care about your chain and its preferred timescales? I mean, they might be helpful, if they've got nothing better to do with their time, but I wouldn't be holding my breath.

Why are your buyers raising this fundamental issue at the last minute? It might be a better use of the 5 days for them to decide to take a view on the fact they're not getting any title to the loft.

That depends on what they want to do with the loft. If it’s just for storage, they might be happy just to muddle along without anything in the lease. If they’ll be making the loft into living space, that’s a different matter.

jarv81178

No no, the loft space belongs to me, the freeholder and my buyer has agreed, it just needs adding to lease contents hence a “deed of variation”
just can’t sell the place without it being agreed in a document

GDB2222

You’ll just need to incentivise the freeholders to act quickly, I guess. Money might do the trick.

eddddy

jarv81178 said:

No no, the loft space belongs to me, the freeholder and my buyer has agreed, it just needs adding to lease contents hence a “deed of variation”
just can’t sell the place without it being agreed in a document

OK - so maybe talk to the freeholder and ask them to move as fast as they can, and ask them to instruct their solicitor to move as fast as they can.



But it really sounds like there's a misunderstanding somewhere...
You have bought a lease. The lease you bought doesn't include the loft. So in simple terms, the loft wouldn't 'belong' to you.

But whatever the problem is with the lease, if the freeholder has agreed to sign a Deed of Variation which the buyer is happy with, that's great.