Lease registration issue

badenmorgan

Hi, can anyone help?  I (via solicitors) am trying to register a 99 year extension on the terms of our lease on our flat with HMLR. It's come to light that the original lease held with HMLR (from 1990) does not include our private garden in the definition of the premises. My (original and sealed) copy of the original lease from 1990 does include the garden in the description and in the plans (albeit it is a hand-written addition to include the garden and reference to the plan that includes the garden, initialled by the housing associations' solicitors). It appears that the copy of the lease held by HLMR doesn't include this addition (not that I've seen this copy), or the plan with the garden, so all HMLR say the are able to register is the flat without garden. The Housing Association agree that the garden is ours, but argue the mistake was made by the original buyers' solicitors in not registering the correct (updated) version of the lease, and that to correct the lease they will charge just under £1000, which I will need to pay. No doubt my solicitors will also charge me their time in resolving this. Where do I stand?  I feel that I should not have to pay to correct an error that was not ours in the making . Note that when we bought the flat in 2006 our solicitors at the time did not identify this issue when they did the conveyancing and neither did my current solicitors when they arranged the lease extension. Also, when the title was registered t us in 2006 the HMLR title copy I was sent included the garden in the plan(!), so HMLR are only retrospectively identifying this error! Thanks

tacpot12

I would look to the solicitors who did the conveyancing in 2006 to contribute to your costs to resolve this. You will need to make a formal complaint to them, but I expect they will turn this back on you saying that they aren't responsible. They will say it was your job to check that what was being conveyed was what you thought you were buying. Unfortunately ours is a flawed system and there are lots of errors at the Land Registry. Now you know how important it is to check the deeds and the title plan match. 

I had exactly the same problem with a property I bought in 1995. The issue only came to light when I wanted to sell the property. I made a claim for adverse possession and paid for an indemnity policy that allowed me to sell the property while we waited for the Land Registry to record that I actually owned the garden I had been sunbathing in for the last 27 years. 

EssexHebridean

Paging @Land_Registry on this one… 

Land_Registry

EssexHebridean said:

Paging @Land_Registry on this one… 

Thanks for the nudge although I don’t think there’s anything I can add to what the OP already knows. 

The ‘where do I stand’ with HMLR will have already been confirmed so it’s more a case of where does the blame lie, how much will it cost to put it right (inc how) and whose going to pay for that. 

Answering those Qs really lies with a conveyancer/solicitor and the HA will charge for their time and costs if a new lease/variation for example is needed. Odds are that will be what’s needed and also the quickest route to a solution at least re ownership. 

But legal advice is needed as to where any blame lies and recouping costs and more as appropriate 

badenmorgan

Thank you both, that confirms what I thought. I have complained to my original solicitors but expect them to push back. Part of the problem is I have v. little confidence in my current solicitor to resolve this as I have been waiting for nearly 3 years for them to register the new lease. They have made 3 aborted attempts at registering it. Each time they failed to deal with the LR requisition. Only this time with help from a friend (non solicitor!) did they get somewhere and now at 11th hour HMLR pull this out the bag!