Freehold subject to leasehold totle

We are in the process of purchasing a house, however the title is a freehold subject to a leasehold (the current owner holds both the freehold and leasehold title). We are trying to get them to resolve this by extinguishing the leasehold/merging the titles so it is an only a freehold.  We are concerned this could delay the sale of the property. Is there a risk that if we purchase the house as a freehold subject to a leasehold that we will not be able to merge the titles I.e. would the Land Registry reject this for some reason? 

Nina - the same requirements would exist for both seller and buyer re any merger request. So if there was a reason to reject then it would apply to both.
I assume your conveyancer/lender has asked for the merger to take place before you can complete so bets to ask them as to why and if any issues appear to exist.
If the application is already in then also ensure that they have expedited it to keep the wait time as short as possible

Hello. Apologies if we are 'hijacking' this thread but we appear to be in a similar situation. We are just setting out to sell a house I inherited 7 years ago, but on first examination by estate agents, there is a leasehold and freehold on the property, the freehold is in my name, but the leasehold I believe refers to my Dad, now deceased, who signed over the property to me just before his death and the leasehold was put in place to prevent him being forced out, as I understand it. I have asked a solicitor to look at it but that it taking it's time and we need to know if we can put the house on the market as 'Freehold' whilst this is being resolved and can it be resolved by us applying online to the Land Registry?

Hello Andrew - if the leasehold is still in Dad's name, and he has sadly passed away, then you can sell the property freehold and leasehold but you'll need probate for him to transfer the leasehold part.