Having checked my lease I have discovered that there are only 68 years remaining on my lease in Bishopsworth. I am keen to get lease extension 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 for permission to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will enable the lease to be granted an extra 90 years by the magistrate. You will be obliged to demonstrate that you or your lawyers have done all that could be expected to track down the freeholder. For most situations a specialist should be useful to try and locate and to produce an expert document to be accepted by the court as proof that the landlord can not be located. It is wise to seek advice from a conveyancer both on proving the landlord’s disappearance and the vesting order request to the County Court overseeing Bishopsworth.

Estate agents have just been given the go-ahead to market my garden flat in Bishopsworth.Conveyancing lawyers have not yet been instructed but I have just had a yearly service charge demand – should I leave it to the buyer to sort out?

The sensible thing to do is 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 managing agents 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. Having a clear account will assist your cause and will leave you no worse off financially.

I today plan to offer on a house that seems to meet my requirements, at a great figure which is making it more attractive. I have subsequently been informed that it's a leasehold as opposed to freehold. I am assuming that there are issues buying a leasehold house in Bishopsworth. Conveyancing advisers have are soon to be appointed. Will they explain the issues?

Most houses in Bishopsworth are freehold rather than leasehold. In this scenario it’s worth having a local solicitor who is familiar with the area can assist with the conveyancing process. It is clear that you are purchasing in Bishopsworth so you should seriously consider looking for a Bishopsworth conveyancing practitioner and check that they are used to advising on leasehold houses. As a matter of priority you will need to check the number of years remaining. As a lessee you will not be entirely free to do whatever you want with the house. The lease will likely included provisions such as obtaining the landlord’sconsent to carry out changes to the property. It may be necessary to pay a service charge towards the upkeep of the communal areas where the property is located on an estate. Your lawyer should advise you fully on all the issues.

I am attracted to a two maisonettes in Bishopsworth both have in the region of fifty years unexpired on the lease term. Will this present a problem?

There are no two ways about it. A leasehold flat in Bishopsworth is a wasting 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 premises. For most purchasers and lenders, leases with less than eighty years become less and less attractive. On a more upbeat note, leaseholders can extend their leases by serving a Section 42 Notice. One stipulation is that they must have owned the property 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 a residence 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 Bishopsworth conveyancing experts who will explain the options available to you during an initial telephone conversation free of charge. A more straightforward and quicker method of extending would be to contact your landlord directly and sound him out on the prospect of extending 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 any new 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.

I work for a busy estate agent office in Bishopsworth where we see a number of flat sales put at risk as a result of leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have received inconsistent advice from local Bishopsworth conveyancing firms. Please can you confirm whether the vendor of a flat can start the lease extension formalities for the buyer?

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. This means that the buyer need not have to wait 2 years for a lease extension. 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 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.

Bishopsworth Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - Examples of Queries Prior to Purchasing

Where a Bishopsworth lease has no more than eighty years it will have adverse implications on the marketability of the flat. It is worth checking with your lender that they are willing to to proceed given the lease term. A short lease means that you will probably need a lease extension sooner rather than later and you need to have some idea of what this would cost. For most Bishopsworthlease extensions you would be required to have owned the premises for a couple of years before you are eligible to extend the lease. What is the yearly maintenance fee and ground rent? The prefered form of lease structure is if the freehold interest is in the ownership of the leaseholders. In this situation the leaseholders enjoy being in charge if their destiny and notwithstanding that a managing agent is frequently retained where the building is bigger than a house conversion, the managing agent acts for the leaseholders themselves.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Bishopsworth