Absent landlord of leasehold

ftbmanchester

hi all, I’m in the process of buying a leasehold house. This is in a conservation area and my initial assumption was that maybe the council held the lease due to this. I am aware of the conservation area terms and these are not a concern for me. 

as the sale has progressed I have discovered the following:
- the land registry titles are held in good leasehold title 
- the land registry have no record/documents of the freeholder 
- it is a terraced house in a small row of 3, all leasehold by the same landlord. None of the owners of any of the houses have had contact from the freeholder for now 20 years to collect the ground rent (7£ per annum - no service charge)
- the last correspondence was from the owner to the freeholders solicitor querying the lack of ground rent collection in 2005 to which the response was that the then freeholder was deceased and they did not represent the account anymore 


The sellers are providing me with absent landlord and leasehold in good title insurance.

I’m just concerned on the risks I face - has anyone been in a similar situation? I’m just trying to consider what the worse case possible is if I do progress
for context the house is my dream house and I am a FTB

user1977

You haven't told us the remaining length of the lease.

GDB2222

Can the op apply for a vesting order under the Leasehold Reform Act?

Emmia

Do you have any details of the deceased freeholder (name, date of death etc)? I'm wondering if looking up their will or letters of administration on the probate service, might give you a clue as to whether these freeholds were inherited by someone, and who that might be.

There is a small fee to access the documents, but it might be worth a shot?

ftbmanchester

ftbmanchester said:

hi all, I’m in the process of buying a leasehold house. This is in a conservation area and my initial assumption was that maybe the council held the lease due to this. I am aware of the conservation area terms and these are not a concern for me. 

as the sale has progressed I have discovered the following:
- the land registry titles are held in good leasehold title 
- the land registry have no record/documents of the freeholder 
- it is a terraced house in a small row of 3, all leasehold by the same landlord. None of the owners of any of the houses have had contact from the freeholder for now 20 years to collect the ground rent (7£ per annum - no service charge)
- the last correspondence was from the owner to the freeholders solicitor querying the lack of ground rent collection in 2005 to which the response was that the then freeholder was deceased and they did not represent the account anymore 


The sellers are providing me with absent landlord and leasehold in good title insurance.

I’m just concerned on the risks I face - has anyone been in a similar situation? I’m just trying to consider what the worse case possible is if I do progress
for context the house is my dream house and I am a FTB

Apologies the lease has 850 years on it and the land registry has nothing except the boundaries/titles - no record of freeholder 

ftbmanchester

Emmia said:

Do you have any details of the deceased freeholder (name, date of death etc)? I'm wondering if looking up their will or letters of administration on the probate service, might give you a clue as to whether these freeholds were inherited by someone, and who that might be.

There is a small fee to access the documents, but it might be worth a shot?

I only have their initial and surname. The letter was 2005 so I’m assuming it was around then, I’ll give y a go! Thank you 

GDB2222

So, you’re not going to need to extend the lease. 

If someone turns up, demanding say £100 in back ground rent, I doubt that is more than a slight inconvenience.

Does the lease contain terms where you might need the freeholder’s permission? For example, to extend, or make alterations. If so, that would be a problem if you go ahead and then the freeholder turns up and demands a payment, but hopefully the insurance will cover that. 

I’m not sure I’d try to find the freeholders …

user1977

Very common to have leases where there is little reason to ever contact the freeholder (and at some point the freeholders or their precessors have lost interest as it's hardly worth collecting the ground rent). It's easy and cheap to insure against what risk there is (and I see your sellers are already offering the insurance).

Bear in mind the insurance is likely to be invalidated if you do attempt to contact the freeholder, so don't consider doing any detective work (unless your solicitor recommends it).

ftbmanchester

GDB2222 said:

So, you’re not going to need to extend the lease. 

If someone turns up, demanding say £100 in back ground rent, I doubt that is more than a slight inconvenience.

Does the lease contain terms where you might need the freeholder’s permission? For example, to extend, or make alterations. If so, that would be a problem if you go ahead and then the freeholder turns up and demands a payment, but hopefully the insurance will cover that. 

I’m not sure I’d try to find the freeholders …

The lease was written in the late 1800s! It’s written in very odl school language but from what we can tell all it stipulates is the ground rent which is the same amount as the last time it was paid 20 years ago and that the freeholders should ensure the houses are basically maintained and don’t make the street look bad for want of a better term