Executor sale of a premium London leasehold property

This was an executor sale of a leasehold flat in Central London. Our Private Client team were also instructed to deal with the administration of the estate.

The deceased’s will left the property to a distant relative who lived in Southeast Asia and was unfamiliar with UK law. There were numerous difficulties with the title documents and therefore the client required bespoke guidance which was tailored to meet the client’s needs.

The first issue was that parts of the title were missing, including an unregistered deed from 1984 relating to a storage vault beneath the pavement. It transpired that a Deed of Variation had been prepared in 1986 to include the storage unit in the leasehold title, however, the previous solicitors had failed to register it.

Our conveyancing team made an application to the Land Registry to register the 1986 Deed for inclusion of the vault. In the interim, and in order to progress the sale, We provided Indemnity Insurance to satisfy the Buyer, and also managed to obtain Statutory Declarations from previous owners to remedy the position.

The second issue was that the lease was only a short lease. We dealt with the service of the requisite notices, in order to seek an extension to the lease and assign the benefit to the Buyers on completion.

Our team were highly commended by the client for tackling the issues head on, and affecting the sale to the client’s satisfaction, despite continually encountering various issues with the title.