I only have Seventy years remaining on my flat in Babbacombe. I need to extend my lease but my landlord is absent. What options are available to me?

On the basis that you qualify, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can submit an application 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 prove that you or your lawyers have used your best endeavours to locate the landlord. For most situations an enquiry agent may be useful to conduct investigations and to produce an expert document which can be accepted by the court as proof that the freeholder can not be located. It is advisable to get professional help from a solicitor in relation to proving the landlord’s disappearance and the vesting order request to the County Court covering Babbacombe.

I am attracted to a two flats in Babbacombe which have about 50 years unexpired on the leases. Do I need to be concerned?

There is no doubt about it. A leasehold flat in Babbacombe is a deteriorating asset as a result of the shortening lease. The nearer the lease gets to its expiry date, the more it reduces the salability of the property. For most buyers and banks, leases with less than 75 years become less and less attractive. On a more positive note, leaseholders can extend their leases by serving a Section 42 Notice. One stipulation is that they must have owned the premises for two years (unlike a Section 13 notice for purchasing the freehold, when leaseholders can participate from day one of ownership). When successful, they will have the right to an extension of 90 years to the current term and ground rent is effectively reduced to zero. Before moving forward with a purchase of premises with a short lease term remaining you should talk to a solicitor specialising in lease extensions and leasehold enfranchisement. We are are happy to put you in touch with Babbacombe conveyancing experts who will explain the options available to you during an initial telephone conversation free of charge. More often than not it is possible to negotiate informally with the freeholder to extend the lease They may agree to a smaller lump sum and an increase in the ground rent, but to shorter extension terms in return. You need to ensure that the agreed terms represent good long-term value compared with the standard benefits of the Section 42 Notice and that onerous clauses are not inserted into any redrafting of the lease.

Last month I purchased a leasehold property in Babbacombe. Am I liable to pay service charges for periods before completion of my purchase?

In a situation 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. Strange as it may seem, your landlord may still be able to take action to forfeit the lease. It is an essential part of leasehold conveyancing for your conveyancer to be sure 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 work for a reputable estate agency in Babbacombe where we see a number of flat sales jeopardised due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given conflicting advice from local Babbacombe conveyancing solicitors. Can you clarify whether the vendor of a flat can instigate the lease extension process 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 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 to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed before, or at the same time as completion of the sale.

Alternatively, it may be possible 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 purchaser.

Do you have any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Babbacombe from the point of view of expediting the sale process?

• Much of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Babbacombe can be avoided if you get in touch lawyers the minute your agents start marketing the property and ask them to collate the leasehold information needed by the buyers conveyancers.
• The majority freeholders or Management Companies in Babbacombe charge for providing management packs for a leasehold property. You or your lawyers should discover the actual amount of the charges. The management information sought on or before finding a buyer, thus reducing delays. The average time it takes to receive management information is three weeks. It is the most usual cause of frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Babbacombe.

Babbacombe Leasehold Conveyancing - A selection of Queries Prior to buying

Many Babbacombe leasehold properties will be liable to pay a service charge for maintenance of the building levied on behalf of the management company. Where you acquire the property you will have to meet this charge, usually periodically throughout the year. This can be anything from a few hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for large purpose-built blocks. In all probability there will be a ground rent to be met yearly, ordinarily this is not a significant figure, say around £50-£100 but you need to check it because occasionally it can be prohibitively expensive. What is the service charge and ground rent on the apartment? This question is useful as a) areas can cause problems in the block as the common areas may begin to deteriorate where services remain unpaid b) if the leasehold owners have an issue with the running of the building you will need to know about it

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Lease Extensions in Babbacombe