I only have Seventy years remaining on my lease in Beverley. I am keen to extend my lease but my landlord is absent. What are my options?

On the basis that you meet the appropriate requirements, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can submit an application to the County Court for an order to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will mean that your lease can be granted an extra 90 years by the Court. However, you will be required to demonstrate that you or your lawyers have done all that could be expected to track down the landlord. In some cases an enquiry agent should be helpful to conduct investigations and prepare an expert document to be accepted by the court as proof that the landlord is indeed missing. It is advisable to get professional help from a solicitor both on investigating the landlord’s absence and the application to the County Court covering Beverley.

Can you offer any advice when it comes to finding a Beverley conveyancing firm to deal with our lease extension?

If you are instructing a conveyancer for lease extension works (regardless if they are a Beverley conveyancing practice) it is imperative that he or she should be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of conveyancing. We recommend that you talk with two or three firms including non Beverley conveyancing practices prior to instructing a firm. If the firm is ALEP accredited then that’s a bonus. Some following of questions could be useful:

• How experienced is the firm with lease extension legislation?

What volume of lease extensions have they conducted in Beverley in the last 12 months?

Do you have any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Beverley from the point of view of speeding up the sale process?

• Much of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Beverley can be reduced where you instruct lawyers the minute your agents start marketing the property and ask them to put together the leasehold documentation needed by the buyers representatives.
• The majority landlords or managing agents in Beverley charge for providing management packs for a leasehold homes. You or your lawyers should find out the actual amount of the charges. The management pack sought as soon as you have a buyer, thus reducing delays. The typical amount of time it takes to receive management information is three weeks. It is the most frequent cause of frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Beverley.

In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s permission? Have you, for example laid down wooden flooring? Most leases in Beverley state that internal structural changes or installing wooden flooring calls for a licence issued by the Landlord approving such works. Where you fail to have the approvals in place do not contact the landlord without contacting your lawyer in the first instance.

If you have had any disputes with your landlord or managing agents it is essential that these are resolved before the property is put on the market. The purchasers and their solicitors will be concerned about purchasing a property where a dispute is unsettled. You may need to swallow your pride and discharge any arrears of service charge or settle the dispute prior to the buyers completing the purchase. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled ahead of the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You will still have to reveal details of the dispute to the buyers, but it is clearly preferable to present the dispute as over rather than unresolved.

You believe that you know the number of years remaining on your lease but you should double-check via your conveyancers. A purchaser's conveyancer will not be happy to advise their client to proceed with the purchase of a leasehold property the remaining number of years is under 75 years. It is therefore essential at an early stage that you consider whether the lease for your property needs extending. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your property on the market for sale.

We expect to complete the sale of our £200000 apartment in Beverley next Monday . The landlords agents has quoted £324 for Certificate of Compliance, insurance certificate and previous years service charge statements. Is the landlord entitled to charge exorbitant fees for a leasehold conveyance in Beverley?

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

• Answering pre-contract enquiries
• Where consent is required before sale in Beverley
• Supplying insurance information
• Deeds of covenant upon sale
• Registering of the assignment of the change of lessee after a sale

Your conveyancer will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for Beverley leasehold property is £350. For Beverley 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 supply the information.

When it comes to leasehold conveyancing in Beverley what are the most common lease problems?

There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Beverley. Most leases are unique and legal mistakes in the legal wording can sometimes mean that certain sections are erroneous. The following missing provisions could result in a defective lease:

• A provision to repair to or maintain elements of the premises
• A duty to insure the building
• Clauses dealing with recovering service charges for expenditure on the building or common parts.
• Maintenance charge proportions which don’t add up to the correct percentage

A defective lease can cause problems when trying to sell a property as they can affect a potential buyer’s ability to obtain a mortgage. Barclays , Skipton Building Society, and Nottingham Building Society all have express requirements when it comes to what is expected in a lease. Where a lender has been advised by their lawyers that the lease is problematic they may refuse to grant the mortgage, obliging the purchaser to pull out.

I inherited a studio flat in Beverley, conveyancing formalities finalised 7 years ago. Can you let me have an estimate of the premium that my landlord can legally expect in return for granting a renewal of my lease? Equivalent flats in Beverley with over 90 years remaining are worth £199,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £50 invoiced annually. The lease terminates on 21st October 2074

With only 51 years unexpired the likely cost is going to range between £36,100 and £41,800 as well as professional fees.

The figure that we have given is a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we are not able to provide the actual costs in the absence of detailed due diligence. Do not use the figures in tribunal or court proceedings. There are no doubt additional concerns that need to be taken into account and clearly you want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Neither should you take any other action based on this information before getting professional advice.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Beverley