Having had my offer accepted I require leasehold conveyancing in Canford Cliffs. Before I get started I require certainty as to the unexpired term of the lease.

Assuming the lease is recorded at the land registry - and 99.9% are in Canford Cliffs - 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.

I have recently realised that I have Sixty One years left on my flat in Canford Cliffs. I need to extend my lease but my freeholder is absent. What options are available to me?

If you qualify, 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 mean that your lease can be extended by the Court. You will be obliged to prove that you have done all that could be expected to track down the landlord. In some cases a specialist may be helpful to carry out a search and prepare an expert document to be used as evidence that the freeholder is indeed missing. It is advisable to get professional help from a solicitor in relation to investigating the landlord’s disappearance and the vesting order request to the County Court covering Canford Cliffs.

I am looking at a two flats in Canford Cliffs which have approximately 50 years remaining on the lease term. Will this present a problem?

There are plenty of short leases in Canford Cliffs. The lease is a legal document that entitles you to use the premises for a prescribed time frame. As the lease shortens the value of the lease decreases and it becomes more expensive to extend the lease. This is why it is generally wise to extend the lease term. More often than not it is difficult to sell a property with a short lease as mortgage companies less inclined to grant a loan on properties of this type. Lease enfranchisement can be a protracted process. We recommend you get professional help from a conveyancer and surveyor with experience in this area

I work for a busy estate agent office in Canford Cliffs where we see a few flat sales jeopardised as a result of short leases. I have been given contradictory information from local Canford Cliffs conveyancing firms. Could you confirm whether the owner of a flat can commence the lease extension process for the buyer?

Provided that the seller has been the owner for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. This means that the proposed purchaser can avoid having 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 prior to, or at the same time as completion of the sale.

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.

What advice can you give us when it comes to choosing a Canford Cliffs conveyancing practice to carry out our lease extension conveyancing?

If you are instructing a property lawyer for lease extension works (regardless if they are a Canford Cliffs conveyancing practice) it is imperative that he or she should be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of work. We recommend that you talk with several firms including non Canford Cliffs conveyancing practices prior to instructing a firm. Where the conveyancing practice is ALEP accredited then so much the better. Some following of questions could be useful:

• If the firm is not ALEP accredited then why not?

I bought a leasehold flat in Canford Cliffs, conveyancing having been completed 4 years ago. Can you shed any light on how much the price could be for a 90 year extension to my lease? Corresponding properties in Canford Cliffs with an extended lease are worth £265,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £60 invoiced every year. The lease finishes on 21st October 2072

With only 52 years left to run we estimate the premium for your lease extension to be between £31,400 and £36,200 as well as costs.

The suggested premium range that we have given is a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we are not able to supply a more accurate figure in the absence of detailed due diligence. Do not use the figures in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There may be additional issues that need to be taken into account and clearly you want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. You should not move forward based on this information without first getting professional advice.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Canford Cliffs