Land registry lists house as both leasehold and freehold?

[optimisticpessimist01]

We have recently been accepted for a house that was previously a leasehold. The current owners said they bought the leasehold and it is now a freehold and they are selling it as a freehold.

We did a quick free search on Land Registry and it has two titles for the house one is a leasehold, one is a freehold

Is there a simple reason as to why it might still be listed as a leasehold even though it is now a freehold? Or is this something that is a warning sign.

Thank you in advance.

I had a reason to phone the Land Registry recently with a query. The lady there was very helpful and my question was answered. Perhaps your query would be sorted with a phone call to them.

We sold our house recently, and it was a leasehold. We purchased the leasehold last year, and the solicitor did not finish the work with the land registry to update to freehold at the time, saying could be done at a later date. When originally started, we weren't selling. Then due to circumstances, we sold, and then were told the 2 titles could be merged at sale. Then our buyer insisted the titles get merged prior to exchange- causing a delay and headache as land registry mucked it up with an incorrect value. All sorted now though. That was a roundabout way of saying that house could have been freehold , leasehold may have been bought but titles not yet merged.

Meant we purchased the freehold last year.

The key issue is who owns each and whether the sellers can demonstrate they own what they are selling. It takes months for paperwork to go through so the separate titles in themselves aren’t necessarily a red flag.

Often it’s as simple as they didn’t get round to it/it didn’t occur to them.

Sometimes the leasehold title has to stay as it has rights in it that you need that the freehold doesn’t have. It’s not a problem if you own both titles.