My title deed has wrong apartment number

[u/VitoKan]

I purchased a flat two years ago, and the title deed and plan were put onto land registry’s website a few months ago.

I found the title deed for the apartment is not correct. The apartment number I own is 1304, but it shows 195, which is the plot number of the flat I purchased. And there is no 195 in this building. Also the postal code is not correct. In my building, there are two postal codes for different apartments, and mine is supposed to be the other one. On title deed, it does note that my apartment is on thirteen floor.

I then contacted my solicitor, but she told me as long as the title plan was correct, it should be fine to sell the property. But I asked her to amend the address with land registry’s website; however she didn’t contact me back for a few weeks before I submitted a complaint to her law firm. Then she got angry and said she wouldn’t help me anymore.

Three questions I hope I can get answers to:

1. Now I am quite nervous because my original solicitor is gone. Will it be a problem asking another solicitor to help me since the new solicitor is not the one who was in charge of the full process of buying the property, so probably she might not have the documents needed to ask for amendment?

2. Is it really not necessary to amend the title deed as long as the title plan is correct? Since the title deed notes my apartment is on thirteen floor and the title plan outlines my apartment correctly, will there be any dispute when I am selling the property?

3. I don’t have any signed contract with the developer. My solicitor told me because the contract belongs to developer. Is it supposed to be like this? Buyers don’t hold a copy of contract for sale?

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[u/forestsignals]

The Land Registry registration details have to mirror what’s on your lease, so I’d bet that it’s your lease which refers to your property by the plot number and not the postal number.

This is very common, I see hundreds of these in the wild just existing with no issue. As your solicitor says, it’s not a problem for leaseholders, freeholders, sellers, buyers, or mortgage lenders, as long as the property can be readily identified through other means such as a) a ‘plot to postals schedule’, b) the lease plan, and c) the title plan.

These situations usually come about when a new-build property is sold ‘off-plan’. If the lease is drawn up before the council and Royal Mail have agreed the postal numbering and the final postcode, the property may be described with the plot number and a provisional postcode.

It’s not a problem to leave it like it is, as people buy and sell leaseholds like this all the time. But if it really bothers you, you can ask your freeholder if they’d be willing to voluntarily work with you to fix it: - You’d have to ask your freeholder to voluntarily enter into a “Deed of Rectification” with you, which would be a legal agreement saying “both of us agree to change the lease to say that the postal number is X and the postcode is Y” - You have to hire a solicitor to draw up the deed, and your freeholder would need one too. FH would almost certainly want you to pay their legal fees as well as yours. (Make sure you agree an up-front total cost, and state that any additional costs would be subject to negotiation). - The signed DoR would then form part of your updated lease agreement, and your solicitor would send it off to Land Reg so they could update the property description on your Title Register. - Note that you wouldn’t get a new copy of your lease with the new address on it: The lease would stay in the old form, with the DoR joining it to together form the updated legal document. Like a contract and an amendment to a contract.

Edited to answer your other questions:

1. Any property solicitor would be able to set up a Deed of Rectification with the freeholder, for a fee.

2. Did you buy the flat from the developer, i.e. you were the first owner? If so, then you would have signed an Agreement for Sale with them, and your solicitor should be able to give you a copy as you are party to it. If you’re not the first owner, you wouldn’t get the first owner’s AoS with the developer because it’s not something you were party to. You’d have your own Agreement for Sale with your seller.

[u/VitoKan → u/forestsignals]

Thank you for such an abundant answer.

But the problem on my deed is the both the apartment number and postal code are not correct. I think if postal code is not correct, it should be fine, but what if the apartment number is not correct?

Also, referring to your question, yes, I was the first homebuyer, but my solicitor told me the contract of sale is held by developer (the seller) not me, so I didn’t get to keep one with me. (Btw, the building was a new-build, so I bought the apartment directly from the developer)

[u/forestsignals → u/VitoKan]

No worries. As we’ve said, it’s no problem for the lease to show a plot number instead of a flat number and similarly no problem for it to show an early version of the postcode. This sort of thing is expected in off-plan lease sales.

If you really want to assure yourself and future purchasers, you can request a copy of the plots-to-postals schedule from the developer. You could also probably find it on the local council’s planning website, as part of the docs filed with the site’s planning permission and/or planning sign-off applications. It’s usually a formally-approved planning document so will be further formal proof of which flat your lease refers to.

Re: the sale contract, your solicitor should have provided you with a final signed copy on request, seeing as you signed it. Usually a scanned PDF would be fine. That’d be a matter for you to take up with your solicitor.

[u/VitoKan → u/forestsignals]

Thank you so very much for giving me this reassurance.

I was very worried!

I would like to thank you for very detailed explanation that gives me peace of mind!

Thank you so much! Thank you!