Licence to assign - confused

[GorgeousLadyofWrestling]

We’re FTB purchasing a leasehold property that we also have a share of the freehold of.

I’ve posted a lot about my solicitor being very slow and saying they’ve done things when they haven’t. Vendors solicitor wanted to exchange the week running up to Christmas - this said to me that they had everything in order.

I finally made a huge complaint to a senior solicitor at my solicitor’s firm and they agreed it’s not been great. He took over the file and has everything needed for exchange EXCEPT he says he’s waiting “licence to assign”.

I kind of understand what this is but have no idea of time scales. Our mortgage offer runs out in Feb. We have to leave our current flat on Jan 31st. I am panicking and stressing because I don’t know how quickly or slowly it might take to get what is needed.

With licence to assign - as I understand it, the landlord gives the right for the tenant to transfer to a new tenant? In a leasehold property - who is the landlord and who is the tenant? I’m trying to understand It so I can get a grasp of time this might take.

The landlord owns the freehold of the property (in a block of flats they usually own the full building of all the flats). The flats are then individually leased to "tenants" - i.e. the current owner, and then you will be the new tenant when you buy it.

The timescale for getting the document depends entirely on how quickly the landlord (or their agent or solicitors if they're using one) gets it to your solicitor. Your solicitor should obviously be pushing this though, given the previous delays. The landlord will more than likely have a standard Licence to Assign already drafted that just needs yours and the sellers' names inserted.

Good luck with the move!

Use the words freeholder and leaseholder as I find that much more straightforward than landlord / tenant as I rented for 20+ years.

@kirinm yep me too - long time renter so was very confused by a different use of landlord and tenant.

@TrixchangeK thank you so much for that info. I’m so bloody anxious about all this. I just want it over with. Logic says to me that if the vendor’s solicitor has been pushing for exchange then they must have everything in order. I’ve had a rubbish Christmas just worrying about this - wish I had chosen my solicitor more wisely.

We bought leasehold / share of freehold. I don't know how many flats there are where you're buying but we ended up getting the freeholders (there are only 4 flats) to extend the lease before we moved in given that it was much more simple for the current owner to get the others to do it. Is that what you're aiming to do?

Oh sorry, I see that isn't what you're doing. Ignore me. I don't remember anything about a license to assign.