Selling a flat with a missing lease

I have hit a snag in the sale of my flat. I can only produce a photocopy of my 1984 lease although it is certified as being a true copy of the original.

I cannot produce the original nor an office copy from the Land Registry because my solicitor says that the 1984 lease is no longer available at the Land Registry and I wonder why that might be?

My title number is SGL734777. The original lease was dated 30 March 1984 and was made between the original developer and the first buyers of this flat. The developer's title number was SGL375899.

I had no problems when my wife and I bought this flat 15 years ago and I was not advised by my solicitor that there was a potential problem- perhaps because she thought that a photocopy certified by an original solicitor was sufficient.

But what appears a little strange is that the 1984 lease no longer appears to be available. I wondered if our purchase of the freehold of our blocks might be relevant? We entered into a deed of surrender and grant after buying the freehold whereby we technically surrendered the old lease and granted ourselves a new 999 year lease.

My title document was revised on 21 November 2012 and while this superseded the original lease it did refer to the original lease and therefore should still be available.

My buyers tell me that their lender may not accept the version of the lease which I have provided.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Daniel Miller

Daniel - responsibility for holding a copy or the originals re a lease rest with the landlord and tenant. Whilst copies/originals maybe submitted to HMLR over time to enable registration we are not then responsible for holding them. As such there will be times when we don't hold a copy.
You refer to your buyer saying that their lander 'may not accept' the version you have so you need to have that confirmed before doing anything else. If they do confirm that then you generally have two options with the buyer/lender to discuss with your conveyancer. Indemnity insurance re the missing lease although they may not accept same or getting a new lease granted by the landlord as appropriate to replace the original and varied ones
The solution to the issues rests with your own conveyancer and the buyer/their conveyancer and landlord as appropriate