Leasehold sold by bank

I have a family member selling a house and buying another, as primary residence. The bank has been dragging it's heels on the title for ages and yesterday they informed her that they sold the leasehold (her property and a bunch of others on the same strip) to a conglomerate of 12 individuals, and that she needs to track down and get consent from all 12 before she can sell.

Firstly I'm surprised that the bank had no duty to notify her of the sale.

Secondly, I'm wondering what she can do to resolve this quickly? She'll lose her dream home if it isn't sorted

davindub

you mean sold the freehold?

MouseTail

Generally you dont need the Freeholders consent to sell. This sounds like an issue with title though. What does their solicitor advise?

I'm pretty sure its a leasehold: "Owning the leasehold interest in a property means that you own just the building and not the land it is on and that your ownership is for a fixed number of years."

She had a small mortgage on the current property, which was to be paid in full as part of the house sale process. As I understand it, the bank is withholding contact information of the new leaseholders, but will contact them on her behalf if she pays "fees" which for 12 people, 6 of them out of the country, will be significant.

antoinolachtnai

This is a very odd situation with the bank. Banks don't issue leases, in general, they give mortgages. If the property is really leased as described and the landlord's consent is needed to sell, then it really isn't the OP's family member's to sell. It belongs to someone else for all intents and purposes.

If this really is a freehold situation, then there is a possibility of buying out the freehold. Also, it should be possible to trace the new landlord through the property registers.

But if it really is a freehold situation, then the landlord/freeholder's consent is not really needed to sell.

What seems more likely is that the loan is in some sort of special circumstances and the bank has sold the loan to someone else.

The OP's family member really needs to get a solicitor to do some searches and find out what is really going on.

Jen44

We have leasehold on our house we bought last year. Its quite common in housing estates build around the 60's in dublin. We are going to buy it back, apparently its straight forward enough only costs a few hundred. That being said the leasehold belongs to a farmer who owned the land that the estate was on and is probably long dead. There is 70 years left on the lease. The solicitor advised us not to let it go too long before buying it back as if could cause problems if we want to sell the house down the line.