My fiance and I may need to sub-let our Ambleside 1st floor flat temporarily due to a career opportunity. We used a Ambleside conveyancing practice in 2001 but they have closed and we did not have the foresight to seek any guidance as to whether the lease permits subletting. How do we find out?

Notwithstanding that your last Ambleside conveyancing lawyer is not available you can check your lease to see if it allows you to sublet the apartment. The accepted inference is that if the deeds are silent, subletting is permitted. Quite often there is a prerequisite that you need to obtain permission from your landlord or some other party before subletting. This means you not allowed to sublet without first obtaining permission. Such consent should not be unreasonably turned down. If the lease does not allow you to sublet you should ask your landlord if they are willing to waive this restriction.

I’m about to sell my garden flat in Ambleside.Conveyancing is yet to be initiated but I have just had a half-yearly service charge invoice – should I leave it to the buyer to sort out?

Your conveyancing lawyer is likely to suggest that you should discharge the service charge as normal because all ground rent and service charges will be apportioned on completion, so you will be reimbursed by the buyer for the period running from after the completion date to the next payment date. Most managing agents will not acknowledge the buyer until the service charges have been paid and are up to date so it is important for both buyer and seller for the seller to show that they are up to date. Having a clear account will assist your cause and will leave you no worse off financially.

I am hoping to put an offer on a small detached house that appears to meet my requirements, at a reasonable figure which is making it all the more appealing. I have just found out that the title is leasehold rather than freehold. I am assuming that there are particular concerns purchasing a house with a leasehold title in Ambleside. Conveyancing lawyers have are about to be appointed. Will they explain the issues?

Most houses in Ambleside are freehold and not leasehold. In this scenario it’s worth having a local solicitor used to dealing with such properties who can help the conveyancing process. We note that you are buying in Ambleside in which case you should be shopping around for a Ambleside conveyancing solicitor and check that they have experience in advising on leasehold houses. First you will need to check the number of years remaining. As a tenant you will not be entirely free to do whatever you want with the house. The lease will likely included provisions such as requiring the landlord’spermission to conduct changes to the property. It may be necessary to pay a contribution towards the maintenance of the communal areas where the property is located on an estate. Your solicitor should advise you fully on all the issues.

I work for a busy estate agent office in Ambleside where we have experienced a number of leasehold sales derailed due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given conflicting advice from local Ambleside conveyancing solicitors. Can you confirm whether the seller of a flat can commence the lease extension formalities for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

As long as the seller has been the owner for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to kick-start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. The benefit of this is that the proposed purchaser can avoid having to sit tight for 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done prior to, or at the same time as completion of the sale.

Alternatively, it may be possible 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.

Can you provide any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Ambleside from the point of view of speeding up the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Ambleside can be reduced if you appoint lawyers as soon as you market your property and request that they start to put together the leasehold information needed by the buyers representatives.
• If you have carried out any alterations to the property would they have required Landlord’s approval? Have you, for example laid down wooden flooring? Ambleside leases often stipulate that internal structural changes or addition of wooden flooring require a licence issued by the Landlord approving such changes. If you dont have the consents in place do not communicate with the landlord without checking with your lawyer before hand.

Leasehold Conveyancing in Ambleside - Sample of Questions you should ask Prior to Purchasing

It is important to be aware if redecorating or some other significant cost is coming up to be shared between the tenants and could well materially increase the the service costs or result in a one off payment. Does the lease have onerous restrictions? If a Ambleside lease has less than eighty years it will impact the value of the property. It is worth checking with your bank that they are willing to lend given the lease term. Leases with less than 80 years remaining means that you will probably require a lease extension at some point and it is worth discovering what this will be. For most Amblesidelease extensions you would be required to have owned the property for a couple of years in order to be legally able to carry out a lease extension.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Ambleside