My Name On The Lease Of A Property I Sold

Hi. I wonder if you can advise me. I sold my leasehold flat ten years ago, and have had nothing to do with it since. The buyer has now contacted me out of the blue and asked that I sign a transfer document to put her name on the head lease as this was not done for some reason ten years ago and my name still appears as one of the three head lessees. Her solicitor will be contacting me soon. What does this mean and should I just agree? I would be very grateful for any advice.

2 Answers

It is not uncommon when you own a leasehold property to also own a share of the freehold (or in the this case the head lease) with the other tenants. The intention is that when you sell the flat you transfer your share to your buyer. It's a way of allowing the tenants to collectively be their own landlords and control things like making sure repairs are carried out etc. Although technically the share of the head lease you are left with has some monetary value (depending on how long is left of the individual flat leases) the morally correct thing to do would be to agree to transfer it and sign the TR1 form when you get it. You may be asked to take another form, an ID1, to a lawyer to have your ID certified or to send your ID to the current owner's lawyer. In either case it would be fair for the person asking you to sign the transfer to reimburse any costs you incur.

Unless it is a term of the flat lease or of the head lease that the share must be transferred on the sale of the flat then the current flat owner may not be able to force you to sign and you may wish to obtain a professional valuation of your share (be warned, it may be worth less than the valuer's fee) and negotiate a sale to the current owner. There is also nuisance value to your share - if the current owner needs it to proceed with a sale of the flat for example it may be worth more to her at this moment than to, say, an investor.

I am very grateful for your reply, I think I now understand the situation. I have now received an email from the other party's
solicitor, and the terminology is slightly different from what I used in my original question. Could you kindly inform me if this changes the situation in any way. It is as follows (I have blanked all names etc):

Dear xxx

We act for Xxx who purchased Flat 2 xxx from you on 19th December 2005.

You were represented by Mr Xxx of Xxx Solicitors in that transaction.

It would appear that your interest in the intermediate leasehold Title Number Xxx was not transferred at the same time as your interest in the sublease title.

The Writer has spoken to Mr Xxx at Xxx Solicitors and he has confirmed this to be the case.

In the circumstances, we are writing to request that you sign a Transfer now in order that your name can be removed from that title and our client’s name can replace it.

As things stand, you continue to remain a party to the intermediate lease which is not in your interest nor our clients.

Could you please confirm that you are prepared to sign such a Transfer in order that we can forward a draft to you. We appreciate you may wish to speak to Mr Xxx before responding and we look forward to hearing from you or him in due course.

Yours faithfully