freehold leasehold problem

[joeboy34]

Hi,

We have had an offer accepted on a house and have encountered a problem. The property is a repossesion and the former "owner" is not legally registered as the free holder. apparently the soliciters did not register them as the freeholder even though they and the previous seller thought they had. the agent does not know who the freeholder is and the bank in possesion of the property will not give out any information on the previous owners so we would be left with a leasehold and the possibilty of the actual freeholder coming back and demanding fees or evicting us. The agent advises that we buy the house as leasehold and then hire a soliciter to try and find the actual freeholder.
they also mentioned taking out an indemnity clause to cover us (although i dont quite understand who we would take this out with).
could any one help...please!

Thanks

Joe

[Richard Webster]

How much is the annual ground rent? In most cases this is not very much and the freheolder could only ask for a few years back rent at most which is not likely to break the bank. As long as you pay that he can't evist you!

Your solicitor will explain about the indmenity insuarance which is organised by him with a specialist company. It is no big deal and unlike a flat an absent freeholder is no big deal. there must be thousands of 100yaer old tereaces in various parts of the country (particularly in the north) where the freeholder can't be found. It is a common issue where I am in Eastleigh & Southampton. It is just a minotr glitch normally and a small extra cost for indemnity insurance.