Leasehold question

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revilo87

Original Poster:

58 posts

39 months

Thursday 25th July
quotequote all
I’ll try to be as succinct as I can

I bought a flat in 2012 that is Leasehold, ground rent is £125 per year and I believe it was around 125 years.

The development company that owned the freehold went into administration and my ground rent direct debits were returned for a couple of years

I tried to remortgage as the fixed costs were going up, but got denied as the ownership of the freehold was in question, I managed to remortgage with my existing provider in the end but couldnt switch.

Fast forward to this year, I received two invoices from a new company with all the relevant info - apart from an explanation as to what happened with the freehold, they don’t have a website or anything - but do exist on companies house, at the same address as the original company that went into administration.

The answer I’ve had from the MD (LinkedIn Premium, yuck) of the new company is that he’s helping out a relative regarding a separate company of a similar name (I.e. one might have the word developments in, the other has the same prefix and a different suffix) - and that it has never changed hands (the freehold)

My question is… how do I actually get to find out what the status is? I want to sell the flat, but not really sure what my best order of business is? Land registry?

I just can’t quite figure out why I’d have been knocked back for a mortgage deal due to the freehold if it was always owned by another company.

Don’t want to misrepresent anything and want to make sure I’m also not paying ground rent to someone without the legal basis to collect in respect of the freehold



surveyor

18,138 posts

191 months

Thursday 25th July
quotequote all
Find out who owns the freehold (land reg search)

If they are asking you to pay someone different ask them to document the change of ownership