Freehold title

thenews

Hi. In 2018 the seller of my house bought the freehold title and then transferred it to me using a TR1 form. Now I’m coming to sell the property my solicitor has advised it’s still registered as leasehold.  Does anyone know who should have submitted the purchase of the freehold to land registry because all I’m getting is a bunch of solicitors shrugging there shoulders and leaving it to me to resolve!  Please help if you have been in the same situation and advise how you overcame the obstacle.  Thanks in advance.

Grumpy_chap

thenews said:

Hi. In 2018 the seller of my house bought the freehold title and then transferred it to me using a TR1 form. Now I’m coming to sell the property my solicitor has advised it’s still registered as leasehold.  Does anyone know who should have submitted the purchase of the freehold to land registry because all I’m getting is a bunch of solicitors shrugging there shoulders and leaving it to me to resolve!  Please help if you have been in the same situation and advise how you overcame the obstacle.  Thanks in advance.

It is quite possible that the house is still registered as leasehold so there are two titles for the same property (leasehold plus freehold) but both owned by the same person.
That is not, however, a rare eventuality so I am surprised that the Solicitor did not make enquiries in the same vein.

What records do you have of when the leasehold and freehold were purchased in 2018?

What exactly has the Solicitor said about the apparent leasehold title?

If you are not getting anywhere, can you do your own search on the LR website for all titles registered covering your property and download them?  I understand there is a small charge per property (<£5?) and I do not know the website to go to or how the search function operates but i am sure someone will be along shortly who can provide you with that information.

Grumpy_chap

To add to the above, the search site is this one, the official Government site:
https://search-property-information.service.gov.uk/search/

I just entered our flat, search by postcode, then click the address, then it says there are two titles (freehold and leasehold) which was expected. Click the one I want to buy and the cost is £3 to buy the Title Register for each.

Do not use the other online site which simply charge more to then get the same information.

eddddy

As above, you probably own 2 titles - the freehold title and leasehold title.

If so, you can sell both titles to your buyer. Your buyer can choose to merge the titles (so just be left with one freehold title) or leave them as 2 titles.

There are sometimes benefits to leaving them as 2 titles, and sometimes benefits to merging them.


It's possible that your buyer might be a bit annoyed if there are 2 titles to deal with (and a potential title merge), if you didn't tell them before they made their offer. Because they'll have higher legal fees than they expected.  And you might have higher legal fees as well.

 

thenews

Thank you for your help.  It certainly helped me focus my search for a resolution.
I went through all the correspondence related to the freehold. The vendors solicitor failed to register the freehold purchase or provide my solicitor evidence of the purchase.  My solicitor didn’t follow up on this or my instruction to merge the titles into my name.
It was up to both sets of solicitors to ensure this happened however, despite being quoted for the legal work, no further correspondence was had and whilst I presumed complete, I have no record that I paid the costs.  So I’m equally at fault. To anyone going through the same process, as exhausting as it is, don’t take your foot off the pedal. 

As this hiccup could cost the sale of the house it’s now being sold as freehold but as it’s being sold to my son we have some time to sort it out for the future.  Thanks again.  Your help was so appreciated. Best wishes