Will the freeholder find out?

[user1482874333]

My soon to be OH lives in a block of four flats with 82 years left on the leases. He expects to pay off his mortgage next month. He will be using a redundancy payment which will leave him a small amount left over (he will start a new job in January so the left over will not need to cover living costs). Is there any mechanism that means the freeholder will find out the mortgage is cleared? OH and the other flats are about to enter lease extension negotiations and their previous dealings with the freeholder suggest it would be better not to reveal their financial position during negotiations. We plan to start a family soon after the wedding so cash will be tighter than it might appear.

I'm unsure as I've never had a lease so not sure what work is involved, however I imagine there will be checks on the land registry which shows any charges on the property such as a mortgage, or lack thereof.

Freeholder can check the land registry details so will see there is no mortgage.

The freeholder can download the title deeds for the property, where at the moment a charge from the current lender will be showing in the Charges Register. Once the mortgage has been paid up, the title deeds will be amended to show that there is no charge on the property. The freeholder has no way of knowing how much is outstanding though, so might be worth leaving a small amount left to pay and therefore the charge will remain on the property.

It is irrelevant if there is a mortgage on the flat as the cost of a lease extension is based on the value of the flat for a lease below 80 years. The marriage value is half the difference between the lease as it is and what it will be when extended. At 82 years the only fee to pay is legal costs to extend the lease.

What Kaniel says, I don't think it's at all relevant.