Limit on Freehold names

tillygambo

Hi there 
I’m buying a flat with my partner, as joint tenants.
The flat is also sold with a share of the freehold, with 4 flats total in the building.
I have been told by my solicitor that the Land Registry only allows 6 names to be registered on a title, and since 5 are already listed, only me or my partner would be able to list our name.

What are the implications of this? From my understanding we would both still own the flat equally, but only one would actually own the share of freehold, and I’m concerned about what this would mean if the person registered were to die (touch wood!) or if we broke up.
Thanks for any help or advice! 

eddddy

A property can only have 4 legal owners (or registered proprietors) - so it sounds like there's some confusion somewhere.

(Often, people get round this by forming a company. The company then owns the building, and any amount of flat owners can potentially own shares in the company.)

If an owner dies, ownership would pass to their heirs. Splitting-up wouldn't trigger an ownership change. In both those cases, what happens to the ownership of the flat (rather than the freehold) is much more important. 

1/4 of the freehold will be worth almost nothing - but it would be another 'headache' to deal with, in those circumstances.




You should also think about much more immediate issues. For example, 4 of you will own a building. You will be jointly responsible for insuring, maintaining and repairing that building. How will you make decisions?

For example, if the roof is leaking - 2 of you want to pay to repair it and 2 of you don't want to pay. Is there a binding strategy for dealing with that?

Also, is there a management company?

Land_Registry

As edddy states the register limit is four. You can name all the parties in the actual Transfer but you must then state which four are to appear on the register 
Very much something to discuss with solicitor and as posted always something to consider with other owners as every time a flats sold then the freehold needs to be transferred, identities proven and more. 

One solution is putting freehold in a company ownership with all owners having a share etc but I’d imagine that’s been broached before but always worth visiting as it may make things easier for all going forward re registration matters at least