I am on look out for some leasehold conveyancing in Cilcain. Before diving in I want to be sure as to the remaining lease term.

If the lease is registered - and almost all are in Cilcain - 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.

There are only 72 years unexpired on my lease in Cilcain. I now wish to get lease extension but my landlord is absent. 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 enable the lease to be granted an extra 90 years by the magistrate. However, you will be required to demonstrate that you have done all that could be expected to locate the freeholder. In some cases an enquiry agent would be helpful to conduct investigations and prepare a report to be used as evidence that the freeholder can not be located. It is advisable to get professional help from a conveyancer in relation to investigating the landlord’s absence and the vesting order request to the County Court covering Cilcain.

Last month I purchased a leasehold flat in Cilcain. Do I have any liability for service charges relating to a period prior to my ownership?

In a situation where the service charge has already been demanded from the previous lessee and they have not paid you would not usually be personally liable for the arrears. However, your landlord may still be able to take action to forfeit the lease. It is an essential part of leasehold conveyancing for your conveyancer to ensure to have an up to date clear service charge receipt before completion of your purchase. If you have a mortgage this is likely to be a requirement of your lender.

If you purchase part way through an accounting year you may be liable for charges not yet demanded even if they relate to a period prior to your purchase. In such circumstances your conveyancer would normally arrange for the seller to set aside some money to cover their part of the period (usually called a service charge retention).

I work for a reputable estate agency in Cilcain where we see a number of leasehold sales jeopardised due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have received contradictory information from local Cilcain conveyancing solicitors. Could you shed some light as to 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 start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. The benefit of this is that the buyer need not have to wait 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 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.

All being well we will complete our sale of a £375000 maisonette in Cilcain next week. The management company has quoted £312 for Certificate of Compliance, building insurance schedule and 3 years statements of service charge. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge such fees for a leasehold conveyance in Cilcain?

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

• Completing conveyancing due diligence questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Cilcain
• 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 solicitor will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for Cilcain leasehold property is £350. For Cilcain 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.

Cilcain Leasehold Conveyancing - Examples of Queries Prior to buying

Plenty Cilcain leasehold properties will have a service charge for the upkeep of the block set by the management company. Where you acquire the flat you will have to pay this amount, normally periodically accross the year. This could differ from two or three hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for bigger purpose-built buildings. There will also be a ground rent for you to pay annual, ordinarily this is not a exorbitant figure, say around £50-£100 but you need to check as sometimes it can be prohibitively expensive. How many years remain on the lease? This information is helpful as a) areas could cause problems in the building as the communal areas may start to deteriorate if maintenance are not paid for b) if the leaseholders have an issue with the running of the building you will wish to have all the details

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Cilcain