Top Five Questions relating to Alfriston leasehold conveyancing
I am on look out for some leasehold conveyancing in Alfriston. Before I set the wheels in motion I want to be sure as to the remaining lease term.
If the lease is registered - and most are in Alfriston - then the leasehold title will always include the basic details of the lease, namely the date; the term; and the original parties. From a conveyancing perspective such details then enable any prospective buyer and lender to confirm that any lease they are looking at is the one relevant to that title.For any other purpose, such as confirming how long the term was granted for and calculating what is left, then the register should be sufficient on it's own.
There are only 68 years remaining on my lease in Alfriston. I now want to extend my lease but my landlord is absent. What options are available to me?
If you meet the appropriate requirements, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can submit an application to the County Court for for permission to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will mean that your lease can be granted an extra 90 years by the magistrate. However, you will be required to demonstrate that you have done all that could be expected to track down the landlord. On the whole an enquiry agent would be helpful to carry out a search and to produce a report to be used as evidence that the landlord is indeed missing. It is advisable to get professional help from a property lawyer in relation to investigating the landlord’s absence and the vesting order request to the County Court covering Alfriston.
Planning to exchange soon on a ground floor flat in Alfriston. Conveyancing solicitors have said that they report fully next week. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?
Your report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in Alfriston should include some of the following:
- You should be sent a copy of the lease
Last month I purchased a leasehold house in Alfriston. Do I have any liability for service charges for periods before completion of my purchase?
Where the service charge has already been demanded from the previous owner and they have not paid you would not usually be personally liable for the arrears. Strange as it may seem, your landlord may still be able to take action to forfeit the lease. A critical element of leasehold conveyancing for your conveyancer to be sure to have an up to date clear service charge receipt before completion of your purchase. If you have a mortgage this is likely to be a requirement of your lender.
If you purchase part way through an accounting year you may be liable for charges not yet demanded even if they relate to a period prior to your purchase. In such circumstances your conveyancer would normally arrange for the seller to set aside some money to cover their part of the period (usually called a service charge retention).
I am a negotiator for a reputable estate agent office in Alfriston where we have experienced a few flat sales put at risk due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given contradictory information from local Alfriston conveyancing firms. Can you shed some light as to whether the vendor of a flat can instigate the lease extension process for the buyer?
Provided that the seller has been the owner for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. This means that the proposed purchaser can avoid having to wait 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done prior to, or simultaneously with completion of the disposal of the property.
An alternative approach is to agree the lease extension with the freeholder either before or after the sale. If you are informally negotiating there are no rules and so you cannot insist on the landlord agreeing to grant an extension or transferring the benefit of an agreement to the buyer.
I bought a garden flat in Alfriston, conveyancing having been completed in 2012. Can you let me have an estimated range of the fair premium for a lease extension? Comparable properties in Alfriston with over 90 years remaining are worth £239,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £45 charged once a year. The lease ends on 21st October 2102
With only 76 years remaining on your lease we estimate the price of your lease extension to span between £13,300 and £15,400 plus legals.
The suggested premium range that we have given is a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we are not able to provide the actual costs without more comprehensive due diligence. Do not use the figures in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There may be additional concerns that need to be taken into account and clearly you want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Neither should you move forward based on this information without first getting professional advice.
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