Harry (my fiance) and I may need to let out our Bramley 1st floor flat temporarily due to taking a sabbatical. We instructed a Bramley conveyancing firm in 2001 but they have closed and we did not think at the time get any guidance as to whether the lease permits subletting. How do we find out?

Even though your last Bramley conveyancing lawyer is not around you can review your lease to check if you are permitted to let out the property. The accepted inference is that if the deeds are non-specific, subletting is allowed. There may be a precondition that you need to obtain consent via your landlord or some other party prior to subletting. This means that you cannot sublet in the absence of first obtaining permission. The consent must not not be unreasonably refused ore delayed. If the lease prohibits you from letting out the property you will need to ask your landlord for their consent.

I am a negotiator for a busy estate agent office in Bramley where we have experienced a few leasehold sales derailed as a result of short leases. I have been given contradictory information from local Bramley conveyancing solicitors. Can you clarify whether the vendor of a flat can instigate the lease extension process for the buyer?

Provided that the seller has owned the lease 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. This means that the buyer can avoid having to sit tight for 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 disposal of the property.

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 buyer.

Can you provide any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Bramley from the point of view of expediting the sale process?

• Much of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Bramley can be avoided where you get in touch lawyers the minute your agents start marketing the property and request that they start to collate the leasehold information which will be required by the purchasers’ representatives.
• The majority freeholders or Management Companies in Bramley levy fees for providing management packs for a leasehold property. You or your lawyers should discover the fee that they propose to charge. The management pack sought as soon as you have a buyer, thus accelerating the process. The average time it takes to receive management information is three weeks. It is the most frequent cause of delay in leasehold conveyancing in Bramley.

A minority of Bramley leases require Landlord’s consent to the sale and approval of the buyers. If this applies to your lease, it would be prudent to notify your estate agents to make sure that the purchasers put in hand bank and professional references. The bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are able to meet the yearly service charge and the actual amount of the service charge should be quoted in the bank’s letter. You will therefore need to provide your estate agents with the actual amount of the service charge so that they can pass this information on to the buyers or their solicitors.

If you have had conflict with your freeholder or managing agents it is very important that these are resolved before the property is marketed. The purchasers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a flat where there is a current dispute. You may have to bite the bullet and discharge any arrears of service charge or resolve 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 reveal the dispute as historic as opposed to unsettled.

If you are supposed to have a share in the Management Company, you should make sure that you hold the original share certificate. Organising a re-issued share certificate can be a time consuming process and delays many a Bramley home move. If a duplicate share is required, you should approach the company officers or managing agents (if applicable) for this at the earliest opportunity.

Our conveyancer has advised that he intends to complete and exchange simultaneously on the sale of our £325000 garden flat in Bramley in seven days. The managing agents has quoted £300 for Landlord’s certificate, building insurance schedule and 3 years statements of service charge. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge exorbitant fees for a leasehold conveyance in Bramley?

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

• Addressing pre-contract enquiries
• Where consent is required before sale in Bramley
• 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 Bramley leasehold premises is £350. For Bramley 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 provide answers.

In relation to leasehold conveyancing in Bramley what are the most frequent lease problems?

There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Bramley. Most leases is drafted differently and drafting errors can sometimes mean that certain provisions are erroneous. The following missing provisions could result in a defective lease:

• Repairing obligations to or maintain elements of the building
• A duty to insure the building
• Clauses dealing with recovering service charges for expenditure on the building or common parts.
• Service charge per centages that don't add up correctly leaving a shortfall

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 , Chelsea Building Society, and Britannia all have very detailed requirements when it comes to what is expected in a lease. If a mortgage lender believes that the lease is defective they may refuse to provide security, obliging the purchaser to pull out.

Bramley Leasehold Conveyancing - A selection of Queries before Purchasing

How is the lease structured? How long is the Lease? Best to be warned if redecorating or some other major work is anticipated that will be shared by the leasehold owners and will dramatically impact the level of the service charges or require a specific invoice.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Bramley