Abdul Mutallib Case Studies - Residential Conveyancing

Please find latest case studies from Abdul Mutallib in our Residential Conveyancing Department.

Ground rent

Ground rent is a very topical issue with rates accelerating at alarming rates within a matter of years. In 2021 we were dealing with a purchase and upon reviewing the Lease we noted that the current ground rent was set at £445.81 per annum with the ground rent to be reviewed every year, over a period of 125 years. This was a very onerous ground rent review provision in the Lease, as normally ground rents would either be fixed or usually reviewed every 15-25 years.

In this particular instance my team and I were able to raise this issue with the Landlord and their solicitors early on in the transaction and come to an agreement to vary the Lease. It was agreed that the ground rent would be fixed at £250 per annum for the duration of the term of the Lease. In addition, this also meant that as the ground rent does not increase above £250, the landlord will not have the power to use an accelerated process for obtaining possession of the property. All this was agreed for a small sum of £650 including VAT that was paid to the landlord’s solicitors for their legal fees for dealing with this (in fact it was paid for by the seller!).

Title deeds

Our client was purchasing a large plot of land and property that had been constructed in the middle of two title numbers. At the time the sellers purchased the land in 2006, neither their solicitors nor the sellers solicitors has identified the additional piece of land. On receiving instructions, we reviewed the title deeds of the property and noticed the obvious error in that the plan to the property did not correspond with the land being purchased. Having enquired further with the sellers solicitors it appears that when the sellers purchased the property in 2006 the second piece of land was not transferred to them by the previous owners. As the issue was raised by us on behalf of our client, we were able to arrange for the sellers to locate the previous owners and have the second title number transferred into the current sellers name.

The need to locate the previous owners and having to correct the title deeds to the property, it resulted in the purchase process taking longer than usual, but had this not been discovered it would have meant that our client would have owned half the land to their property with a third party owning the other half.