There are only Fifty years remaining on my flat in Brighouse. I now wish to get lease extension but my freeholder is can not be found. What options are available to me?

On the basis that you qualify, 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 lengthened by the Court. However, you will be required to prove that you have made all reasonable attempts to track down the lessor. On the whole an enquiry agent should be useful to conduct investigations and prepare a report which can be accepted by the court as evidence that the freeholder can not be located. It is advisable to get professional help from a conveyancer in relation to proving the landlord’s disappearance and the application to the County Court overseeing Brighouse.

I work for a reputable estate agency in Brighouse where we have experienced a number of flat sales derailed as a result of leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have received contradictory information from local Brighouse conveyancing solicitors. Please can you clarify whether the seller of a flat can instigate the lease extension process for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

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. 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 has to be done 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.

Do you have any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Brighouse from the point of view of saving time on the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Brighouse can be avoided where you get in touch lawyers as soon as your agents start advertising the property and ask them to put together the leasehold information which will be required by the buyers conveyancers.
• In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s permission? In particular have you laid down wooden flooring? Brighouse leases often stipulate that internal structural alterations or laying down wooden flooring require a licence from the Landlord consenting to such works. If you dont have the consents in place you should not contact the landlord without contacting your lawyer first.

Some Brighouse leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this applies to your lease, it would be prudent to notify your estate agents to make sure that the purchasers obtain financial (bank) and professional references. The bank reference should make it clear that the buyer is financially capable of paying 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 purchasers or their solicitors.

If you have the benefit of shareholding in the freehold, you should make sure that you are holding the original share certificate. Obtaining a duplicate share certificate is often a time consuming formality and slows down many a Brighouse conveyancing deal. If a duplicate share certificate is needed, do contact the company officers or managing agents (where applicable) for this sooner rather than later.

You may think that you are aware of the number of years left on your lease but it would be wise to verify this via your solicitors. A purchaser's conveyancer will not be happy to advise their client to to exchange contracts if the remaining number of years is below 80 years. It is therefore important at an early stage that you identify whether the lease for your property needs extending. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your premises on the market for sale.

We expect to complete the sale of our £375000 garden flat in Brighouse in just under a week. The management company has quoted £360 for Certificate of Compliance, building insurance schedule and previous years service charge statements. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge such fees for a flat conveyance in Brighouse?

For most leasehold sales in Brighouse 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 questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Brighouse
• Copies of the building insurance and schedule
• 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 Brighouse leasehold property is £350. For Brighouse 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 answers.

What are the frequently found defects that you see in leases for Brighouse properties?

There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Brighouse. All leases are individual and drafting errors can sometimes mean that certain clauses are missing. The following missing provisions could result in a defective lease:

• Repairing obligations to or maintain parts of the premises
• Insurance obligations
• A provision for the recovery of money spent for the benefit of another party.
• 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 primarily because it impacts on the ability to obtain a mortgage on the property. Santander, Coventry Building Society, and Britannia 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 buyer to pull out.

Leasehold Conveyancing in Brighouse - Examples of Queries Prior to buying

Who are the managing agents? Please inform me if there are any major works in the planning that will likely add a premium to the maintenance costs? You should be aware that where the lease has less than 80 years it will impact the marketability of the property. Check with your bank that they are content with remaining years on the lease. Leases with fewer than 80 years remaining means that you will probably need a lease extension sooner rather than later and it is worth discovering how much this would cost. Remember, in most cases you will be required to have owned the premises for 24 months before you are eligible to extend the lease.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Brighouse