Fixed-fee leasehold conveyancing in Audley:

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Leasehold conveyancing in Audley is more complex than freehold. Your home move will be smoother where you choose a lawyer with a wealth of experience of leasehold conveyancing in Audley and throughout next step up in loc. The lawyers we recommend have been approved by your lender so use our search tool to check.

Recently asked questions relating to Audley leasehold conveyancing

Frank (my husband) and I may need to let out our Audley basement flat for a while due to a career opportunity. We instructed a Audley conveyancing firm in 2003 but they have closed and we did not have the foresight to seek any advice as to whether the lease prohibits the subletting of the flat. How do we find out?

Notwithstanding that your previous Audley conveyancing solicitor is no longer around you can check your lease to check if it allows you to sublet the premises. The accepted inference is that if the lease is silent, subletting is allowed. Quite often there is a prerequisite that you need to seek permission from your landlord or other appropriate person before subletting. The net result is that you cannot sublet without prior permission. Such consent must not not be unreasonably turned down. If your lease does not allow you to sublet you will need to ask your landlord if they are willing to waive this restriction.

I only have 68 years left on my flat in Audley. I now wish to extend my lease but my landlord is can not be found. What should I do?

If you qualify, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the County Court for an order to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will enable the lease to be extended by the magistrate. You will be obliged to prove that you have used your best endeavours to locate the freeholder. In some cases an enquiry agent should be useful to try and locate and to produce a report to be accepted by the court as proof that the landlord can not be located. It is wise to seek advice from a conveyancer both on investigating the landlord’s absence and the application to the County Court overseeing Audley.

I am hoping to sign contracts shortly on a ground floor flat in Audley. Conveyancing lawyers assured me that they will have a report out to me on Monday. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?

The report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in Audley should include some of the following:

  • Whether the lease restricts you from renting out the property, or working from home
  • You should be told what constitutes a Nuisance in the lease
  • Ground rent - how much and when you need to pay, and also know whether this will change in the future
  • An explanation as to the provision in the lease to pay service charges - with regard to both the building, and the more general rights a leaseholder has
  • Whether your lease has a provision for a reserve fund?
  • The landlord’s obligations to repair and maintain the building. It is important that you know who is responsible for the repair and maintenance of every part of the building
  • What options are open to you if a neighbour is in violation of a provision in their lease? For details of the information to be contained in your report on your leasehold property in Audley please ask your solicitor in advance of your conveyancing in Audley

    • My wife and I purchased a leasehold flat in Audley. Conveyancing and HSBC Bank mortgage went though with no issue. A letter has just been received from someone saying they have taken over the reversionary interest in the property. Attached was a ground rent demand for rent dating back to 1994. The conveyancing solicitor in Audley who acted for me is not around.What should I do?

    The first thing you should do is make enquiries of HMLR to make sure that the individual purporting to own the freehold is in fact the new freeholder. It is not necessary to instruct a Audley conveyancing solicitor to do this as it can be done on-line for less than a fiver. Rest assured that in any event, even if this is the legitimate freeholder, under the Limitation Act 1980 no more than 6 years of rent can be collected.

    I am employed by a long established estate agency in Audley where we have witnessed a number of leasehold sales put at risk due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have received contradictory information from local Audley conveyancing solicitors. Could you clarify whether the owner of a flat can commence the lease extension process for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

    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. This means that the proposed purchaser need not have to sit tight for 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done before, 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.

    Audley Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - Examples of Questions you should consider Prior to Purchasing

      Who takes charge for maintaining and repairing the block? Its a good idea to discover as much as you can regarding the company managing the block as they will either make life much simpler or problematic. Being a leasehold owner you are frequently in the clutches of the managing agents from a financial perspective and when it comes to day to day issues such as the tidiness of the common parts. Enquire of other people what they think of them. Finally, be sure you understand the dates that the maintenance fees are due to the appropriate party and specifically how they are spending that money. Be sure to investigate if there are any onerous restrictions in the lease. By way of example plenty of leases prohibit pets being permitted in certain buildings in Audley. If you love the apartmentin Audley but your cat is not allowed to make the move with you then you will be presented with a hard compromise.

    Other Topics

    Lease Extensions in Audley