Double title on same property LH & FH

[vivimimi]

Hi folks - I'm in process of buying a probate property, albeit the conveyancing process has slowed down. Thats ok.

My solicitors have found out that the house is registered as a leasehold and freehold and the seller owns both titles which they are selling to me.
Its a 1930 chalet style detached house. Not apartment etc.

The estate agent confirmed the above finding and has told that my solicitors can convert to one freehold title on completion when we register it with land registry.

Is this ok? I'm not sure why there are two titles, as its probate its being sold through trust and no-one knows.
But ultimately if I can convert to fully freehold, I hope that should be ok.

Any thoughts and views from this forum pls?

I would suggest that the vendor converts it before you buy just in case you end up with only the leasehold bit and then the vendor might be able to levy a charge for the freehold. Unless you are absolutely certain to aquire both the leasehold and the freehold simultaneously. I would go on the advice of your solicitor rather than the vendors estate agent

Long leases on 1930's estates are not unusual. You're fine because the sellers will sell you both titles given that they've disclosed them both.

You probably can merge the titles after completion. However, sometimes there are rights in the lease that are not on the freehold, in which case you need to keep both titles. Your solicitor will be able to advise on that once they've seen all the title documents.

Ok. So I hope there won’t be any problem selling house later, if I wish to.

If both titles are transferred to you on completion then there isn't a problem. The Land Registry may or may not merge the titles beforehand - usually they won't if it isn't strictly necessary - but they should do it on completion if asked to.

This is perfectly normal practice, don't worry.

I purchased a property with two titles just like that. No problem with the mortgage or anything. I was a CF when it came to selling though - I sold the freehold to a freehold landlord and sold the leasehold as I would a normally property. Didn't affect the sale price, sold to a FTB and I also had the bonus of extra money from selling the freehold.

Thank you all. Such a big relief. I shall check with my solicitors if there are additional costs for the work (@WhoWouldHaveThoughtThat).
Thank you @MinnieMountain, @Fleurchamp, @thisislovelyme (big relief for your short sweet reassurance ).

@fairydustandpixies - what is CF ??? Interesting, was the property a whole house i.e semi or mid-terrace. Did you sell units separately i.e. Ground floor, first floor, like maisonette model. ?

Don't ever ever ever trust an estate agents version of events! Definitely a question for the solicitor and recommend that the vendor does the conversion prior to sale.

Latest on this. My solicitors have sent enquiry to the sellers solicitors requesting to merge the titles before we exchange.

My solicitors saying if we have to merge the titles at the completion time, we have to inform the mortgage lender. As the mortgage offer is made on the FH title and now that there is dual titles we are required to inform the lender. They may decide to amend the offer or give permission to go ahead on the same offer. I don't want to go through this arduous cycle again.

Another twist to the tale.

The property being a probate one, will be interesting to see the response from sellers side.

Fingers crossed.

What also strikes me is why would anyone have a LH title and a FH title on a seemingly FH property ? The person is deceased without any family.

Anyone here come across this kind of situation ?

We had this when we bought our house. Our whole road used to be owned by a local 'estate' (i.e. a local Lord) and all were Leasehold. At some point in the last 50 years, they all became Freeholds. (Didn't know any of this before buying). At some point it came up in legal documents and we were told that the Leasehold would be extinguished on completion. It wasn't- and came up on some paperwork a few months after completion. We got it extingued by our solicitor - might have paid about £100 for it - can't remember now but it definitely wasn't more and I know that in the grand scheme of buying a house costs that it wasn't much. It never came up as an issue with our mortgage though.

I know we could have technically kept both and eventually sold on both the Freehold and Leasehold separately as someone upthread has mentioned, but the area we are in, and the fact it's a house and not a flat, meant that no one would really touch a sale like this.

What kind of property is it? Is just bog-standard residential street or could it have been part of an estate (ours was for estate workers). Maybe part of a private development on farmland that kept the lease.

Its a residential detached house in a Close. I spoke to my prospective neighbour and he told me that most houses in that close had similar double titles. So I can now what you are talking about @AhComeOnNow. Thank you.

I come across this at work. As PP said, it's normally an estate of some sort.

If it's possible to merge the titles, some people still don't bother as they don't see the need when they own both titles.

Do you think lender will pose any issue with this, given that the mortgage offer is on FH property. My solicitor says that we have to inform the lender...
Do we have to inform the lender ???

Your solicitor has to inform the lender of anything unusual or different from what the property was valued on. They act for them too. I wouldn't have thought it would be a problem given that you're buying both titles.