My wife and I may need to let out our Camborne 1st floor flat temporarily due to a career opportunity. We instructed a Camborne conveyancing firm in 2002 but they have closed and we did not think at the time get any guidance as to whether the lease allows us to sublet. How do we find out?

Some leases for properties in Camborne do contain a provision to say that subletting is only permitted with prior consent from the landlord. The landlord cannot unreasonably withhold but, in such cases, they would need to review references. Experience suggests that problems are usually caused by unsatisfactory tenants rather than owner-occupiers and for that reason you can expect the freeholder to take up the references and consider them carefully before granting permission.

I’m about to sell my 2 bed apartment in Camborne.Conveyancing is yet to be initiated but I have just had a yearly maintenance charge demand – should I leave it to the buyer to sort out?

The sensible thing to do is pay 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 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. This will smooth the conveyancing process.

I am a negotiator for a long established estate agency in Camborne where we have witnessed a number of leasehold sales derailed due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have received contradictory information from local Camborne conveyancing solicitors. Please can you confirm whether the owner of a flat can initiate 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 proposed purchaser can avoid having to wait 2 years to extend their lease. 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.

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 purchaser.

Can you offer any advice when it comes to choosing a Camborne conveyancing practice to deal with our lease extension?

If you are instructing a solicitor for your lease extension (regardless if they are a Camborne conveyancing practice) it is imperative that he or she should be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of conveyancing. We suggested that you speak with two or three firms including non Camborne conveyancing practices prior to instructing a firm. Where the conveyancing practice is ALEP accredited then that’s a bonus. Some following of questions might be helpful:

• How experienced is the practice with lease extension legislation?

If all goes to plan we aim to complete our sale of a £175000 flat in Camborne in 8 days. The management company has quoted £384 for Landlord’s certificate, insurance certificate and previous years statements of service charge. Is the landlord entitled to charge an administration fee for a leasehold conveyance in Camborne?

Camborne conveyancing on leasehold apartments more often than not involves the buyer’s conveyancer sending questions for the landlord to answer. Although the landlord is under no legal obligation to answer such questions most will be willing to assist. They are entitled charge a reasonable charge for answering questions or supplying documentation. There is no set fee. The average costs for the information that you are referring to is over three hundred pounds, in some situations it exceeds £800. The management information fee invoiced by the landlord must be accompanied by a summary of rights and obligations in respect of administration charges, otherwise the charge is technically not due. In reality you have little choice but to pay whatever is requested of you if you want to exchange contracts with the buyer.

Camborne Leasehold Conveyancing - A selection of Queries before Purchasing

The prefered form of lease arrangement is if the freehold title is in the ownership of the leaseholders. In this arrangement the leaseholders benefit from being in charge if their destiny and even though a managing agent is often retained where the building is larger than a house conversion, the managing agent employed by the leaseholders. If a Camborne lease has no more than eighty years it will have adverse implications on the value of the flat. It is worth checking with your mortgage company that they are willing to go ahead with the loan given the lease term. A short lease means that you will almost definitely require a lease extension sooner rather than later and you need to have some idea of what this will be. Remember, in most cases you will need to own the property for a couple of years before you are eligible to extend the lease. Plenty Camborne leasehold flats will incur a service bill for the upkeep of the building levied by the landlord. Should you purchase the property you will have to meet this charge, normally in instalments throughout the year. This may differ from several hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for large purpose-built blocks. In all likelihood there will be a ground rent to be met yearly, this is usually not a large figure, say about £25-£75 but you should to enquire as sometimes it could be many hundreds of pounds.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Camborne