I have just started marketing my ground floor apartment in Avonmouth.Conveyancing lawyers have not yet been instructed but I have just received a yearly service charge demand – what should I do?

Your conveyancing lawyer is likely to suggest that you should pay 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 management companies will not acknowledge the buyer unless 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. This will smooth the conveyancing process.

I am tempted by the attractive purchase price for a couple of flats in Avonmouth both have in the region of forty five years unexpired on the lease term. should I be concerned?

There are plenty of short leases in Avonmouth. The lease is a legal document that entitles you to use the property for a prescribed time frame. As the lease gets shorter the saleability of the lease deteriorate and results in it becoming more expensive to acquire a lease extension. For this reason it is advisable to extend the lease term. Sometimes it is difficulties arise selling premises with a short lease because mortgage lenders may be reluctant to lend money on such properties. Lease enfranchisement can be a protracted process. We recommend you seek professional help from a solicitor and surveyor with experience in this arena

I am employed by a long established estate agent office in Avonmouth 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 Avonmouth conveyancing solicitors. Could you shed some light as to whether the seller of a flat can commence the lease extension formalities for the buyer?

Provided that the seller has owned the lease for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to commence the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. The benefit of this is that the buyer can avoid having 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 purchaser.

Can you provide any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Avonmouth from the point of view of saving time on the sale process?

• Much of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Avonmouth can be reduced if you instruct lawyers the minute you market your property and request that they start to collate the leasehold information which will be required by the buyers lawyers.
• In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s approval? In particular have you laid down wooden flooring? Most leases in Avonmouth state that internal structural changes or addition of wooden flooring require a licence from the Landlord acquiescing to such alterations. Should you fail to have the consents in place do not contact the landlord without checking with your solicitor in advance.

Some Avonmouth leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this applies to your lease, you should place the estate agents on notice to make sure that the purchasers put in hand financial (bank) and professional references. Any bank reference should make it clear that the buyer is able to meet the yearly service charge and the actual amount of the service charge should be quoted in the bank’s letter. You will therefore need to provide your estate agents with the service charge figures so that they can pass this information on to the buyers or their lawyers.

If there is a history of conflict with your freeholder or managing agents it is essential that these are settled before the property is marketed. The buyers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a property where a dispute is ongoing. You will have to accept that you will have to discharge any arrears of service charge or settle the dispute prior to completion of the sale. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled prior to the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You are still duty bound to disclose details of the dispute to the purchasers, but it is better to reveal the dispute as over as opposed to unsettled.

If you are supposed to have a share in the freehold, you should ensure that you are holding the original share document. Organising a replacement share certificate can be a time consuming formality and slows down many a Avonmouth conveyancing deal. Where a reissued share certificate is necessary, do contact the company officers or managing agents (where applicable) for this sooner rather than later.

If all goes to plan we aim to complete our sale of a £175000 garden flat in Avonmouth next Monday . The managing agents has quoted £324 for Landlord’s certificate, building insurance schedule and previous years statements of service charge. Is the landlord entitled to charge an administration fee for a flat conveyance in Avonmouth?

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

• Completing conveyancing due diligence questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Avonmouth
• 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 Avonmouth leasehold property is £350. For Avonmouth 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 the information.

I invested in buying a 1 bedroom flat in Avonmouth, conveyancing formalities finalised 2010. Can you please calculate a probable premium for a statutory lease extension? Equivalent properties in Avonmouth with a long lease are worth £239,000. The ground rent is £60 per annum. The lease expires on 21st October 2083

You have 57 years remaining on your lease we estimate the price of your lease extension to range between £24,700 and £28,600 plus professional fees.

The figure that we have given is a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we are not able to supply the actual costs without more detailed investigations. You should not use this information in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There may be other concerns that need to be taken into account and you obviously want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Neither should you take any other action based on this information without first seeking the advice of a professional.

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Lease Extensions in Avonmouth