Having had my offer accepted I require leasehold conveyancing in Arnside. Before diving in I want to be sure as to the unexpired term of the lease.

If the lease is recorded at the land registry - and most are in Arnside - then the leasehold title will always include the short particulars 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 unexpired on my lease in Arnside. I am keen to get lease extension but my freeholder is absent. What are my options?

If you meet the appropriate requirements, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply 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. You will be obliged to demonstrate that you have used your best endeavours to track down the landlord. For most situations an enquiry agent would be useful to carry out a search and to produce a report which can be accepted by the court as proof that the freeholder is indeed missing. It is advisable to get professional help from a solicitor both on devolving into the landlord’s disappearance and the vesting order request to the County Court covering Arnside.

Last month I purchased a leasehold house in Arnside. Am I liable to pay service charges relating to a period prior to my ownership?

In a situation where the service charge has already been demanded from the previous lessee 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 ensure 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).

Can you provide any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Arnside from the perspective of saving time on the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Arnside can be bypassed where you get in touch lawyers the minute your agents start advertising the property and request that they start to put together the leasehold documentation which will be required by the buyers lawyers.
• Many freeholders or Management Companies in Arnside charge for supplying management packs for a leasehold property. You or your lawyers should discover the actual amount of the charges. The management pack can be applied for as soon as you have a buyer, thus accelerating the process. The average time it takes to obtain the necessary information is three weeks. It is the most usual reason for delay in leasehold conveyancing in Arnside.

If you have had any disputes with your landlord or managing agents it is essential that these are settled before the property is put on the market. The buyers and their solicitors will be nervous about purchasing a flat where there is an ongoing dispute. You will have to accept that you will have to discharge any arrears of service charge or resolve the dispute prior to the buyers completing the purchase. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled prior to the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You will still have to reveal particulars of the dispute to the buyers, but it is clearly preferable to reveal the dispute as historic rather than unresolved.

If you hold a share in a the Management Company, you should ensure that you are holding the original share document. Organising a duplicate share certificate can be a time consuming formality and frustrates many a Arnside conveyancing transaction. Where a reissued share certificate is necessary, do contact the company director and secretary or managing agents (where applicable) for this as soon as possible.

You may think that you are aware of the number of years left on your lease but it would be advisable double-check via your lawyers. A purchaser's lawyer will not be happy to advise their client to where the remaining number of years is below 75 years. In the circumstances it is important at an early stage that you identify whether the lease requires a lease extension. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your property on the market for sale.

We expect to complete our sale of a £500000 garden flat in Arnside in just under a week. The landlords agents has quoted £312 for Certificate of Compliance, building insurance schedule and previous years service charge statements. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge an administration fee for a leasehold conveyance in Arnside?

Arnside conveyancing on leasehold maisonettes typically involves administration charges raised by freeholders :

• Answering conveyancing due diligence enquiries
• Where consent is required before sale in Arnside
• Copies of the building insurance and schedule
• Deeds of covenant upon sale
• Registering of the assignment of the change of lessee after a sale

Your solicitor will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for Arnside leasehold property is £350. For Arnside conveyancing transactions it is customary for the seller to pay for these costs. The landlord or their agents are under no legal obligation to answer such questions most will be willing to do so - albeit often at exorbitant prices where the fees bear little relation to the work involved. Unfortunately there is no law that requires fixed charges for administrative tasks. Neither is there any legal time frame by which they are obliged to provide the information.

I purchased a 2 bed flat in Arnside, conveyancing having been completed 9 years ago. Can you work out an approximate cost of a lease extension? Comparable flats in Arnside with an extended lease are worth £169,000. The ground rent is £65 levied per year. The lease runs out on 21st October 2102

With just 77 years left to run we estimate the premium for your lease extension to span between £11,400 and £13,200 plus plus your own and the landlord's "reasonable" professional fees.

The figure above a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we cannot give you a more accurate figure without more detailed investigations. You should not use the figures in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There are no doubt additional issues that need to be taken into account and you obviously should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. You should not move forward based on this information before seeking the advice of a professional.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Arnside