I own a leasehold flat in Aspley Guise. Conveyancing and Clydesdale mortgage are in place. I have received a letter from someone saying they have taken over the reversionary interest in the property. It included a ground rent demand for rent dating back to 1995. The conveyancing solicitor in Aspley Guise who acted for me is not around.Do I pay?

The first thing you should do is make enquiries of the Land Registry to be sure that this person is in fact the registered owner of the freehold reversion. It is not necessary to incur the fees of a Aspley Guise conveyancing lawyer to do this as it can be done on-line for £3. Rest assured that in any event, even if this is the rightful landlord, under the Limitation Act 1980 no more than 6 years of rent can be collected.

I am looking at a couple of apartments in Aspley Guise which have in the region of forty five years left on the leases. should I be concerned?

A lease is a right to use the premises for a prescribed time frame. As the lease gets shorter the marketability of the lease deteriorate and results in it becoming more costly to extend the lease. For this reason it is advisable to increase the term of the lease. Sometimes it is difficult to sell a property with a short lease as mortgage lenders may be unwilling to lend money on such properties. Lease extension can be a difficult process. We advise that you get professional help from a solicitor and surveyor with experience in this field

I've recently bought a leasehold property in Aspley Guise. 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. However, 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).

I am employed by a busy estate agent office in Aspley Guise where we have witnessed a number of flat sales put at risk due to short leases. I have been given contradictory information from local Aspley Guise conveyancing firms. Can you clarify whether the seller of a flat can initiate the lease extension process for the buyer?

As long as the seller has owned the lease 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 need not have to sit tight for 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed prior to, or simultaneously with completion of the disposal of the property.

An alternative approach is to extend the lease informally by agreement with the landlord 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.

We expect to complete our sale of a £150000 flat in Aspley Guise in just under a week. The landlords agents has quoted £372 for Landlord’s certificate, building insurance schedule and 3 years service charge statements. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge an administration fee for a flat conveyance in Aspley Guise?

For the majority of leasehold sales in Aspley Guise conveyancing will involve, queries regarding the management of a building inevitably needing to be answered directly by the freeholder or its agent, this includes :

• Completing pre-contract questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Aspley Guise
• Supplying insurance information
• 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 Aspley Guise leasehold premises is £350. For Aspley Guise 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 required to provide answers.

Aspley Guise Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - A selection of Queries before buying

On the whole the outlay for major works are not incorporated into the service charges, although a few managing agents in Aspley Guise obliged leasehold owners to pay into a reserve fund created for the specific intention of building a fund for major repairs or maintenance. It would be a good idea to find out if the the lease includes any onerous restrictions in the lease. By way of example plenty of leases prohibit pets being permitted in certain buildings in Aspley Guise. If you like the flatin Aspley Guise yet your cat can’t make the move with you then you have a very difficult choice. The answer will be useful as a) areas can result in problems for the building as the common areas may start to deteriorate if repairs are not paid for b) if the leasehold owners have a dispute with the running of the building you will need to have all the details

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Aspley Guise