Unregistered lease on Land Registry title

MilliesAunty

Hello, this is a long shot but I'm wondering whether someone can help me to understand a problem we're having with our house sale.

We bought our current house in 2014 and discovered in the process that an offer had been made to sell the freehold to the previous occupier. After purchase we took up that offer and had the same solicitors firm handle the freehold purchase as did the conveyancing.

Fast forward to now and we're selling our house. It seems that despite the Land Registry showing the property as freehold there is also a lease listed on the title.

The previous solicitors have looked at this and insist that it is all normal. They say that because we have a copy of the lease the title is fine.

The conveyancer we have now hasn't seen a title like this before and has written to the Land Registry for advice. She thinks that the original lease was never transferred into our names and when we subsequently bought the freehold it's created this problem.

I'm finding everything very stressful. My husband has just been given a date for a heart operation in June and we really need to move before that but I don't know how long this problem will delay the sale.

Can anyone help me to understand why this problem has arisen and whether it can be fixed?

Thank you

silvercar

paging @Land_Registry (our expert from the LR itself).

I suspect it is something like: you can’t give a lease to yourself, so if buying the freehold the lease that you did hold becomes relinquished as part of the process. It may now be that the paperwork that should have followed you buying the freehold needs tidying up.

Are you using a professional property solicitor or a cheap conveyancer? It may be that a conveyancer isn’t as familiar with this set up as a solicitor would be.

user1977

They say that because we have a copy of the lease the title is fine.

Is that exactly what they said? Because it doesn't make much sense. If the lease had been assigned to you (which is what should have happened on completion of your original purchase), then your title is fine. So was it?

poseidon1

Seems it is not uncommon, and maybe down to the original solicitor not being bothered to take the next step to extinguish/merge the lease bearing in mind a system does exsist with LR to do so.

As to whether the continued existence of your lease running contemporaneously with your freehold will be an issue for your prospective buyer, remains to be seen. However in the case of the relative of a buyer in the 2020 thread below, it certainly caused them a degree of anxiety -

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6166978/house-being-sold-with-freehold-and-leasehold-titles

It was suggested to them as buyers to go ahead and buy and then complete the merger of title post sale. However, your prospective buyers may not be quite so sanguine about incurring additional legal fees to do the same thing unless you undertake to indemnify them for the additional cost.

Given you need to move ASAP, perhaps the solution is to undertake to pay the cost of the post sale lease/freehold merger? Its the pragmatic approach I would certainly take to get the deal done.

MilliesAunty

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82000952#Comment_82000952

"The freehold title makes reference to the land being subject to the Leases as per the schedule which includes this property. Your solicitor has a copy of the Lease. I see no issue of concern."

This is the exact wording from the original solicitors.

user1977

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82000967#Comment_82000967

Ok, but the identity of the current leaseholder is also relevant - hopefully that's you? Otherwise it would appear that you own the freehold but your sellers are still the leaseholders.

MilliesAunty

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82001008#Comment_82001008

I have no idea.

The land registry shows one title, listed as freehold for my house. All the leasehold properties on my street show a leasehold and a freehold title for each property.

The problem with my title comes from the Schedule of notices of leases at the bottom of the title showing the original 999 year lease.

I have the original copy of the lease but this still seems to be causing delays to my sale.

user1977

Do you have any correspondence from the time of your purchase talking about an assignment or registration?

MilliesAunty

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82001054#Comment_82001054

I don't. My current conveyancer requested the lease transfer documents from the previous solicitor but instead they sent copies of the lease and title, both of which we already had.

Land_Registry

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82000931#Comment_82000931

It's not an unusual scenario although the way it's been described is a tad confusing but suspect that's just my reading of the statements made, and tbh my asking a load of Qs isn't going to help your stress levels.

Can you DM me the property details/title number please? That way I can match the registered info to what you have stated/been told and hopefully offer a better understanding of how it is registered and what you are being told