Buying a freehold...small problem

[Maroochydore]

My son is buying a leasehold house. It was built in the 1930's and has a 999 year lease with a ground rent of £5 per annum.

He would like to purchase the freehold (although some would say "why bother").

The problem is that no one seems to know who the freeholder is and the present owner of the leasehold house says he has never been asked for or paid the £5 annual rent.

I understand there is a provision to apply to the county court for a vesting order so that if the freeholder is absent and the leaseholder is eligible, then the court will step in and take over the responsibilities of the freeholder, which I assume includes being able to transfer the freehold to the leaseholder.

Apparently it is necessary to serve a Section 42 or Section 13 notice to the freeholder and only if the freeholder fails to respond then the order is granted.

However what is the situation if, as stated, no one knows who the freeholder is so they can't serve said notices?

I may also have the stated procedure wrong, in which case I'd appreciate any input to be able guide my son to his goal.

[pompeygazza]

You can contact the Land Registry to find out who the registered freeholder is and if necessary obtain a copy of the freehold title register.

[newlyretired]

You can contact the Land Registry to find out who the registered freeholder is and if necessary obtain a copy of the freehold title register.

...but this might not work if it hasn't been registered

newlyretired

[mc2fool]

You can contact the Land Registry to find out who the registered freeholder is and if necessary obtain a copy of the freehold title register.

Start here: https://eservices.landregistry.gov.uk/eservices/FindAProperty/view/QuickEnquiryInit.do

You'll want the freehold title register. It'll cost you £3. However, I'm a bit surprised that you say that "no one seems to know who the freeholder is" as I'd have expected your son's solicitor to have already obtained the freehold and leasehold title registers and plans, and the lease itself, so I'd start by asking them if they have them and what they say.

[pochisoldi]

Having looked around https://www.lease-advice.org/ , making the assumption that the property is actually leasehold, and not a property liable to a rent charge (See: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/rentcharges which are also referred to as "ground rent")...

1) A view needs to be taken on whether it will be worth buying the freehold or not.
If none of the following apply then I would forget about freehold purchase:
a) The lease has covenants between leasor and lessee which could cost me money to enforce or defend against.
b) The lease requires the lessee to get permission to do things that I, or more importantly a future owner, might want to reasonably do and I could be asked to pay for that permission.
(Examples: Replace a fence, change windows, extend the property, build/rebuild/convert a garage)
iii)

2) If you want to buy the freehold, you will either have to:
a) Before the property is sold, persuade the vendor to set the freehold purchase ball rolling (good luck if the freeholder can't be traced), and ensure that the sale contract includes the assignment of the vendor's freehold purchase rights to the purchaser and also requires the vendor to provide any documents/assistance as may be required.
b) Buy the property and wait 2 years before going down the statutory route (Leasehold Reform Act 1967)
c) Buy the property, track down the freeholder and then negotiate a price (aka the informal route)

3) If you do proceed with the purchase
a) Make sure you use a "proper" conveyancer/solicitor, where your purchase gets handled by the same person, rather than being handed around a large office 200 miles away like a hot potato. You are buying leasehold, with or without a missing freeholder, your fingers could get burnt if you decide to save £200 and get poor legal advice. (A good conveyancer will tell you about all the "unknown unknowns" that you never even realised existed).
b) If the freeholder is missing and the vendor has no evidence that the ground rent has been paid, don't let your conveyancer go into silly mode.
If they insist that you or the vendor buys an indemnity policy, tell them to work out what the maximum liability could be (12 or 6 years rent multiplied by the annual ground rent), and then get them to tell the other side that (i) the price needs to be reduced by £X, and in return (ii) the transaction goes ahead with the purchaser accepting liability for unpaid ground rent. (This happened when my parents house was sold with a £4pa rent charge unpaid for over 20 years - purchaser's solicitor went yampy, I told our conveyancer how to resolve it).

Other useful info:
The freehold purchase will take 12 months or more (https://www.lease-advice.org/faq/how-lo ... -my-house/) so unless you want to wait 2 years (https://www.lease-advice.org/faq/how-lo ... -freehold/), you will have to get the vendor to start the ball rolling. They will have to take reasonable steps to trace the freeholder (https://www.lease-advice.org/faq/i-own- ... -freehold/).
If you insist on having them start the process and they couldn't be [expletive deleted] (or they have a second offer without the freehold purchase condition), they may reject your offer, or decline to proceed with the sale.

Personally I would want to read the lease before I formally instruct a conveyancer, and get a copy of the LR entries for the leasehold and freehold titles.
If the lease had any nasties, or I didn't like the name of the freeholder, I could then withdraw my offer without paying a penny in legals...
If you don't know what to look for, you could also minimise wasted costs by getting hold of the lease up front, and telling the conveyancer. "Before you do anything, I want you to read this lease and tell me if there are any potential burdens that come with it". They only need to have a quick look - if it looks good, you can proceed and they can do the in depth stuff as part of the normal process.

HTH
PochiSoldi