Mr and Mrs Ross and the missing lease extension

Mr and Mrs Clements of East Finchley have consented for their names to be used in the following article:

In October 2008 Mr and Mrs Ross phoned Fridaysmove seeking a leasehold conveyancing quote for the sale of their leasehold property. 

Their flat was a central London flat based in Marylebone.  Mrs Ross advised Simon Seaton of our office that she had had a terrible experience with her previous property solicitors in terms of lack of communication and proactivity. 

She had heard via her estate  agents that Fridaysmove were exceptionally fast and thorough.  She had an offer on her property already and the Buyers being cash buyers were keen to exchange inside of three weeks.  Mr Seaton immediately applied for Mr and Mrs Ross’s Title Deeds from their bank and also, in order to save time, downloaded the Land Registry documentation evidencing title so that he could send out a draft Contract to the Buyers’ property solicitors that day. 

Mr Seaton was very surprised to note that the Lease of the flat that Mr and Mrs Ross owned only had 35 years remaining.  Mr Seaton immediately contacted Mrs Ross to check that she and her Buyers were aware that the property being sold had such a short Lease.  Mrs Ross was extremely shocked by this news having assured Mr Seaton that when she purchased the property back in 1997 her property solicitor was supposed to have dealt with the Lease extension simultaneously on completion of the purchase.  She remembered wiring her solicitor £20,000 for the Lease extension. Understandably she was now extremely distressed that it now appeared that the lease extension formalities were not completed.

Mr Seaton suggested that she collect all the paperwork she had dating back to when she and her husband purchased  the property and attend the offices that afternoon for a meeting.  During the meeting Mr Seaton called Mr and Mrs Ross’s previous solicitors only to find out that they had been “intervened” by the Law Society( which meant that they had been closed down).  This intervention took place one year after Mr and Mrs Ross had purchased the property. 

During the meeting with Mr and Mrs Ross, Mr Seaton arranged for one of the senior conveyancing executives to make further investigations with the Law Society as to the whereabouts of the original lease extension and conveyancing files.  Mr Seaton also contacted the Landlord’s property solicitors to see if they could shed any light on the matter and asked them to retrieve their lease extension files from archive. 

After a number of hours of investigation (with Mr and Mrs Ross still in the office) it became apparent that whilst the relevant documents had been executed the  formalities were never completed at the Land Registry.  Fridaysmove arranged for the original file to be collected from the Law Society and immediately had a conversation with the buyer’s conveyancing lawyer purchase and explained everything to him.  The overriding concern was to make sure that the Buyers and their property solicitors need not be put off proceeding with the purchase.  They were given assurances that Fridaysmove were immediately putting in hand applications to the Land Registry to register the new Lease extension.  Details of the Landlord’s solicitors were given to the Buyers’ property solicitors so that they could speak directly.  It was felt that the best approach to take in this case was to be full and frank with the Buyers and their conveyancing lawyer.  The estate agent was also updated.

The proactivity and communication that Mr and Mrs Ross were looking for when they first sought a quote from Fridaysmove was demonstrated very early on in their transaction.  By spotting the lease extension problem at the beginning of the conveyancing transaction Fridaysmove were able to address the issue decisively and keep all the parties in the transaction on board.