Top Five Questions relating to Beaconsfield leasehold conveyancing
Estate agents have just been given the go-ahead to market my ground floor apartment in Beaconsfield.Conveyancing solicitors are to be appointed soon but I have just received a half-yearly service charge invoice – what should I do?
It best that you pay the invoice 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 until 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.
Last month I purchased a leasehold property in Beaconsfield. 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 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 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 a negotiator for a reputable estate agency in Beaconsfield where we see a few flat sales jeopardised due to short leases. I have received conflicting advice from local Beaconsfield conveyancing firms. Please can you clarify whether the owner of a flat can commence 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 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 at the same time as 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.
Do you have any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Beaconsfield with the intention of expediting the sale process?
- Much of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Beaconsfield can be avoided if you appoint lawyers as soon as you market your property and ask them to put together the leasehold information needed by the buyers lawyers.
- If you have carried out any alterations to the property would they have required Landlord’s approval? Have you, for example installed wooden flooring? Most leases in Beaconsfield state that internal structural changes or laying down wooden flooring necessitate a licence from the Landlord approving such works. Should you fail to have the approvals in place you should not contact the landlord without checking with your conveyancer first.
Our conveyancer has advised that he intends to complete and exchange simultaneously on the sale of our £475000 maisonette in Beaconsfield in seven days. The managing agents has quoted £372 for Landlord’s certificate, building insurance schedule and previous years service charge statements. Is the landlord entitled to charge exorbitant fees for a flat conveyance in Beaconsfield?
For most leasehold sales in Beaconsfield 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 conveyancing due diligence questions
- Where consent is required before sale in Beaconsfield
- Copies of the building insurance and schedule
- Deeds of covenant upon sale
- Registering of the assignment of the change of lessee after a sale
Beaconsfield Leasehold Conveyancing - A selection of Questions you should ask Prior to buying
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Is anyone aware of any major works on the horizon that will increase the service fees?
It would be prudent to investigate if there is anything that is prohibited in the lease. By way of example it is fairly common in Beaconsfield leases that pets are not permitted in in a block in Beaconsfield. If you love the apartmentin Beaconsfield but your cat can’t live with you then you will be presented with a hard compromise.
Most Beaconsfield leasehold apartments will be liable to pay a service bill for maintenance of the building set by the management company. Where you purchase the apartment you will have to meet this charge, usually periodically accross the year. This could vary from a couple of hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for bigger purpose-built blocks. There will also be a ground rent for you to pay annual, this is usually not a significant sum, say approximately £25-£75 but you need to check as on occasion it could be prohibitively expensive.
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