Recently asked questions relating to Baguley leasehold conveyancing
Having checked my lease I have discovered that there are only Fifty years remaining on my flat in Baguley. I now want to extend my lease but my freeholder 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 Court. You will be obliged to demonstrate that you have made all reasonable attempts to find the lessor. For most situations a specialist may be helpful to conduct investigations and to produce a report 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 conveyancer both on proving the landlord’s absence and the application to the County Court overseeing Baguley.
Back In 2001, I bought a leasehold house in Baguley. Conveyancing and Norwich and Peterborough Building Society mortgage are in place. I have received a letter from someone claiming to own the reversionary interest in the property. Attached was a ground rent demand for rent dating back to 1998. The conveyancing solicitor in Baguley who acted for me is not around.What should I do?
The first thing you should do is contact the Land Registry to be sure that the individual claiming to own the freehold is in fact the registered owner of the freehold reversion. There is no need to incur the fees of a Baguley conveyancing solicitor to do this as you can do this on the Land Registry website for a few pound. Rest assured that regardless, even if this is the legitimate landlord, under the Limitation Act 1980 the limitation period for recovery of ground rent is six years.
Last month I purchased a leasehold property in Baguley. Do I have any liability for service charges relating to a period prior to completion of my purchase?
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. However, 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 long established estate agent office in Baguley where we see a few flat sales derailed as a result of short leases. I have been given contradictory information from local Baguley conveyancing firms. Please can you shed some light as to whether the vendor of a flat can commence 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 kick-start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. The benefit of this is that the buyer need not have to wait 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done before, or simultaneously with completion of the sale.
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.
All being well we will complete our sale of a £ 375000 maisonette in Baguley next Wednesday . The management company has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Landlord’s certificate, insurance certificate and 3 years statements of service charge. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge exorbitant fees for a flat conveyance in Baguley?
For most leasehold sales in Baguley 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 pre-contract enquiries
- Where consent is required before sale in Baguley
- Copies of the building insurance and schedule
- Deeds of covenant upon sale
- Registering of the assignment of the change of lessee after a sale
I purchased a ground floor flat in Baguley, conveyancing having been completed half a dozen years ago. Can you work out an approximate cost of a lease extension? Similar flats in Baguley with an extended lease are worth £225,000. The ground rent is £65 charged once a year. The lease runs out on 21st October 2077
You have 51 years unexpired we estimate the premium for your lease extension to be between £35,200 and £40,600 plus plus your own and the landlord's "reasonable" professional fees.
The suggested premium range above a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we are not able to advice on the actual costs without more comprehensive investigations. You should not use this information in tribunal or court proceedings. There may be other issues that need to be considered and clearly you should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. You should not take any other action based on this information before getting professional advice.