Leasehold Conveyancing in Burghfield Common - Get a Quote from the leasehold experts approved by your lender

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When it comes to leasehold conveyancing in Burghfield Common, you will need to instruct a conveyancing solicitor with leasehold experience. Whether your mortgage company is to be Halifax, Birmingham Midshires or Bradford & Bingley be sure to find a lawyer on their panel. Feel free to use our search tool

Frequently asked questions relating to Burghfield Common leasehold conveyancing

Having had my offer accepted I require leasehold conveyancing in Burghfield Common. Before diving in I require certainty as to the remaining lease term.

If the lease is recorded at the land registry - and 99.9% are in Burghfield Common - then the leasehold title will always include the short particulars of the lease, namely the date; the term; and the original parties. From a conveyancing perspective such details then enable any prospective buyer and lender to confirm that any lease they are looking at is the one relevant to that title.For any other purpose, such as confirming how long the term was granted for and calculating what is left, then the register should be sufficient on it's own.

Expecting to complete next month on a studio apartment in Burghfield Common. Conveyancing solicitors have said that they report fully next week. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?

Your report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in Burghfield Common should include some of the following:

  • Details of the parties to the lease, for example these could be the leaseholder (you), head lessor, freeholder
  • The physical extent of the demise. This will be the property itself but might incorporate a roof space or basement if applicable.
  • Setting out your legal entitlements in respect of the communal areas in the building.E.G., does the lease include a right of way over a path or staircase?
  • Will you be prohibited or prevented from having pets in the property?
  • Changes to the flat (alterations and additions)
  • Whether the landlord has obligations to ensure rights of quiet enjoyment over your premises and do you know what it means in practice?
  • The landlord’s obligations to repair and maintain the building. It is important that you know who is responsible for the repair and maintenance of every part of the building For details of the information to be included in your report on your leasehold property in Burghfield Common please enquire of your solicitor in ahead of your conveyancing in Burghfield Common

    • I have just started marketing my garden apartment in Burghfield Common.Conveyancing solicitors are to be appointed soon but I have just had a half-yearly maintenance charge demand – what should I do?

    It best that you clear 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 unless 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.

    I work for a busy estate agency in Burghfield Common where we have experienced a few leasehold sales put at risk due to short leases. I have been given conflicting advice from local Burghfield Common conveyancing solicitors. Could you confirm whether the seller of a flat can instigate 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 proposed purchaser need not have to sit tight for 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done 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 buyer.

    Can you provide any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Burghfield Common with the aim of saving time on the sale process?

    • A significant proportion of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Burghfield Common can be avoided where you instruct lawyers as soon as your agents start marketing the property and ask them to put together the leasehold documentation needed by the purchasers’ solicitors.
    • The majority landlords or Management Companies in Burghfield Common charge for supplying management packs for a leasehold premises. You or your lawyers should discover the fee that they propose to charge. The management information can be applied for on or before finding a buyer, thus accelerating the process. The average time it takes to receive management information is three weeks. It is the most frequent reason for frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Burghfield Common.
  • If you have had conflict with your landlord or managing agents it is very important that these are resolved before the property is put on the market. The buyers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a flat where a dispute is ongoing. You may have to bite the bullet and pay any arrears of service charge or resolve the dispute prior to completion of the sale. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled prior to the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You are still duty bound to disclose details of the dispute to the buyers, but it is better to present the dispute as over rather than ongoing.
  • If you have the benefit of shareholding in the freehold, you should make sure that you are holding the original share document. Arranging a new share certificate can be a lengthy process and frustrates many a Burghfield Common home move. Where a new share certificate is needed, do contact the company director and secretary or managing agents (if applicable) for this sooner rather than later.
  • You believe that you know the number of years remaining on your lease but you should double-check via your conveyancers. A buyer’s lawyer will not be happy to advise their client to proceed with the purchase of a leasehold property the lease term is less than 80 years. It is therefore important at an as soon as possible that you identify whether the lease requires a lease extension. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your property on the market for sale.

    • Burghfield Common Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - Sample of Questions you should ask before Purchasing

      The majority of Burghfield Common leasehold flats will incur a service charge for maintenance of the block levied on behalf of the management company. Where you buy the flat you will have to pay this charge, usually in instalments throughout the year. This could be anything from several hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for large purpose-built blocks. In all likelihood there will be a rentcharge for you to pay annual, this is usually not a significant amount, say about £50-£100 but you need to enquire it because sometimes it can be many hundreds of pounds. The prefered form of lease structure is if the freehold title is in the ownership of the leaseholders. In this situation the leaseholders enjoy being in charge if their destiny and even though a managing agent is frequently retained if it is bigger than a house conversion, the managing agent acts for the leaseholders themselves. How many of the leaseholders are in arrears for their maintenance charge payments?

    Other Topics

    Lease Extensions in Burghfield Common