Delayed enquiries - leasehold garage incorrectly registered

RM_2013

We are buying a freehold house with a leasehold garage under a coach house.  We knew about the set up before we made an offer and were advised by the vendor that it was leasehold based on peppercorn rent - no management company involved and no ground rent to pay.  I’ve read through lots of threads on here about pros and cons, restrictive covenants etc to try and understand. 

However I’ve chased our solicitors today and been advised that it’s come to light that when the current vendor purchased the house the garage was “incorrectly registered” so they’ve had to go back to the previous owners to resolve.

now concerned this could add weeks to the process (our buyers want to move into our house before Christmas and are almost ready to exchange) 

I have asked the solicitor to further clarify what the issue is and how long this could take to resolve but awaiting a reply.

Does anyone have any experience of anything similar or any advice?

I guessing the title deed wasn’t transferred from previous owner????

silvercar

Similar but not identical, parking space in the car park of the flat wasn’t registered to the seller. Once that was identified the seller could apply to Land Registry for the registration to be registered and then for LR to expedite the registration, so should have then taken a further 2 weeks from the first application to register. Our case was even more complicated due to a change in ownership of the freehold and other cases needing sorting first, but we got there in the end.

RM_2013

@silvercar thanks for your reply and good to hear you managed to resolve it

I’ve had further confirmation from our solicitor that a TR1 form needs to be signed by the person that is listed on the garage title.  I am assuming this is the previous owner.

In theory sounds straightforward but is very much dependent on how quickly the previous owner completes the required paperwork.  I think my hope of a pre Christmas completion has just gone up in smoke 💨 

kirtondm

Had a similar issue but worse issue years ago as the original owner was uncontactable as they have moved abroad. In the end it required a declaration of trust by the previous solicitor and the land registry involved.

In your case it all hinges on how willing the previous owner is to sign over the garage.

kirtondm

In my case it added a few weeks 

propertyrental

RM_2013 said:

I’ve had further confirmation from our solicitor that a TR1 form needs to be signed by the person that is listed on the garage title.  I am assuming this is the previous owner.
Almost certainly.

In theory sounds straightforward but is very much dependent on how quickly the previous owner completes the required paperwork.  I think my hope of a pre Christmas completion has just gone up in smoke 💨 

Indeed.
They might be on holiday.
They might (quite likely) want to take legal advice.
They might want that legal advice paid for by your seller (otherwise why should they do anything?).
They might decide they want to keep the lease on the garage and so do nothing, forcing your seller to start a legal dispute.
All worst case scenarios of course.....

RM_2013

kirtondm said:

Had a similar issue but worse issue years ago as the original owner was uncontactable as they have moved abroad. In the end it required a declaration of trust by the previous solicitor and the land registry involved.

In your case it all hinges on how willing the previous owner is to sign over the garage.

Thanks yes I think I saw some of your posts on this when I was googling in the early hours of the morning and came across some old threads about similar issues.  Glad you got things sorted. Apparently the sellers solicitor has contacted the previous owner and they are confident it won’t take long to sort but it’s in the hands of other people now  

RM_2013

propertyrental said:

RM_2013 said:

I’ve had further confirmation from our solicitor that a TR1 form needs to be signed by the person that is listed on the garage title.  I am assuming this is the previous owner.
Almost certainly.

In theory sounds straightforward but is very much dependent on how quickly the previous owner completes the required paperwork.  I think my hope of a pre Christmas completion has just gone up in smoke 💨 

Indeed.
They might be on holiday.
They might (quite likely) want to take legal advice.
They might want that legal advice paid for by your seller (otherwise why should they do anything?).
They might decide they want to keep the lease on the garage and so do nothing, forcing your seller to start a legal dispute.
All worst case scenarios of course.....

I did some googling in the wee small hours and read a few similar threads about similar scenarios and of course being an over thinker I had considered all of the worst case scenarios such as you have suggested.

interestingly it appears that the solicitor that failed to register the title deed is the solicitor dealing with my purchase (local solicitor) so it’s in their interest to get this resolved.

Thanks for the reply - very frustrated right now as my buyers are almost ready to exchange 

RM_2013

@Land_Registry
i hope you don’t mind me tagging you in on my post.  I wonder if you can advise if the solicitor has suggested the correct course of action.

as you can see my issue is that the leasehold garage title was not transferred to the current owners when they bought the house.

Solicitor has advised me that they have contacted the original sellers solicitors to rectify and that they need a completed TR1 from the person who is on the garage title to the current seller’s to send to LR along with the TR1 that we complete. The TR1 we sign will have both titles on and the extra TR1 will just be used for evidence to get us registered as the owner of both titles. 

I understand very little about LR but is the the quickest and correct way of resolving our issue? 

Thanks in advance 

diystarter7

OP
One of our kids bought a BTL, and nearing time to exchange contracts it came to light the car park space accessed by walking across a pavement was under a different lease. Took about three weeks to resolve. Our so kept on the case and his solicitor said it was the other side and possibly sellr not having the info to hand etc. It happens and it is what it is.

A lot of the time spent/delays is due to work sitting in sols trays as they deal with other work and or depending on others for the info, so it takes time.

RM_2013

@diystarter7 thanks for your reply.  Have been reading a lot of threads and posts about leasehold garages/parking spaces and it seems to be a common issue that they’ve been missed during conveyencing.  That’s reassuring to hear that they managed to resolve it fairly quickly in your kids case.
trying not to feel too pessimistic.  

I’ve updated our buyers on the situation and they are happy to wait for our purchase to be ready (as long as mortgage offers don’t start running out)