Short lease on flat issue

[Meoricin]

davejf said:

matjk said:

I'm surprised they didn't pull the "we explained all that to you at the time, do you not remember "
line.
Good luck, hope you get a good outcome

So was I slightly but if they had pointed out something as severe as that and the advice was ignored I would have expected my girlfriend to have to sign something to that effect for this very situation but she didn’t as she wasn’t told about it and there are apparently no meeting minutes!

Thank you.

I wouldn't get too hung up on signatures; if they'd put it in writing it would be sufficient to evidence that it happened. Most lay people, when asked to sign something, just sign blindly anyway - then claim they didn't understand what they'd signed and that it wasn't explained to them properly.

There are tons of small points which could have long lasting impact in a house purchase - if your solicitors asked you to come in and sign to say you understood every time they told you something then you'd never leave their office.

However, in this case, it does sound like it was missed - seems like it'd be pretty easy to put aside the garden set of official copies, focus on the building's set and complete all your checks as if the garden lease didn't exist. As others have said, if that happened it should be obvious by the papertrail.

[davejf]

Meoricin said:

I wouldn't get too hung up on signatures; if they'd put it in writing it would be sufficient to evidence that it happened. Most lay people, when asked to sign something, just sign blindly anyway - then claim they didn't understand what they'd signed and that it wasn't explained to them properly.

There are tons of small points which could have long lasting impact in a house purchase - if your solicitors asked you to come in and sign to say you understood every time they told you something then you'd never leave their office.

However, in this case, it does sound like it was missed - seems like it'd be pretty easy to put aside the garden set of official copies, focus on the building's set and complete all your checks as if the garden lease didn't exist. As others have said, if that happened it should be obvious by the papertrail.

That’s a fair point although as quite a big point I would have expected this one to be specifically noted.

The paper trail seems to be the bit they don’t have/didn’t do/can’t find currently.

Which is quite shoddy for a professional.

[Fastpedeller]

davejf said:

We know a few of the neighbours who bought at roughly the same time so have know the leases and figures So unless the cost to extend is less than a few grand then we can be sure we paid normal price with a long lease. We’re expecting the cost based on lease calculators to be 5-10k to be honest with a lease that short so are fairly certain we didn’t get a bargain as the short lease wasn’t disclosed to my girlfriend when she bought.

Not that it should make any difference to the fact that the short lease wasn't pointed out to you but........ Is it a communal garden, and do all you neighbours have a similar short lease on the garden part?

[davejf]

Fastpedeller said:

Not that it should make any difference to the fact that the short lease wasn't pointed out to you but........ Is it a communal garden, and do all you neighbours have a similar short lease on the garden part?

Not communal and no they don’t.

They must have used good solicitors.

[Fastpedeller]

davejf said:

Fastpedeller said:

Not that it should make any difference to the fact that the short lease wasn't pointed out to you but........ Is it a communal garden, and do all you neighbours have a similar short lease on the garden part?

Not communal and no they don’t.

They must have used good solicitors.

Fair doos - You must surely have a good case for them to rectify this at no cost to yourself

[davejf]

Fastpedeller said:

Fair doos - You must surely have a good case for them to rectify this at no cost to yourself

We certainly hope so!

The info we have and the response from them would suggest so too.