I've recently bought a leasehold property in Clophill. Am I liable to pay service charges relating to a period prior to my ownership?

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. A critical element 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).

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

If you are instructing a solicitor for your lease extension (regardless if they are a Clophill conveyancing practice) it is imperative that he or she should be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of conveyancing. We recommend that you talk with several firms including non Clophill conveyancing practices before you instructing a firm. Where the conveyancing practice is ALEP accredited then that’s a bonus. Some following of questions could be helpful:

• If they are not ALEP accredited then why not?
• Can they put you in touch with client in Clophill who can give a testimonial?

Can you provide any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Clophill from the point of view of expediting the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Clophill can be reduced if you instruct lawyers the minute your agents start advertising the property and ask them to put together the leasehold information which will be required by the buyers representatives.
• The majority landlords or managing agents in Clophill charge for supplying management packs for a leasehold property. You or your lawyers should find out the fee that they propose to charge. The management information sought 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 usual cause of delay in leasehold conveyancing in Clophill.
• In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s approval? In particular have you laid down wooden flooring? Most leases in Clophill state that internal structural changes or addition of wooden flooring necessitate a licence from the Landlord acquiescing to such changes. Should you fail to have the paperwork to hand you should not contact the landlord without checking with your solicitor in the first instance.
• Some Clophill leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this is the case, you should notify your estate agents to make sure that the purchasers put in hand financial (bank) and professional references. Any bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are financially capable of paying the annual 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 service charge figures so that they can pass this information on to the buyers or their solicitors.
• If you have had conflict with your landlord or managing agents it is very important that these are resolved before the property is marketed. The purchasers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a flat where there is an ongoing dispute. You may have to bite the bullet and pay any arrears of service charge or resolve the dispute prior to the buyers completing the purchase. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled prior to the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You will still have to reveal particulars of the dispute to the purchasers, but it is clearly preferable to reveal the dispute as historic as opposed to unsettled.

We expect to complete our sale of a £ 250000 apartment in Clophill next week. The landlords agents has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Landlord’s certificate, building insurance schedule and 3 years service charge statements. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge such fees for a flat conveyance in Clophill?

For the majority of leasehold sales in Clophill 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 pre-contract enquiries
• Where consent is required before sale in Clophill
• 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 Clophill leasehold property is £350. For Clophill 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.

In relation to leasehold conveyancing in Clophill what are the most frequent lease defects?

There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Clophill. All leases is drafted differently and legal mistakes in the legal wording can sometimes mean that certain provisions are not included. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:

• Repairing obligations to or maintain elements of the building
• 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

You may have a problem when selling your property if you have a defective lease as they can affect a potential buyer’s ability to obtain a mortgage. Birmingham Midshires, Norwich and Peterborough Building Society, and TSB all have very detailed conveyancing instructions 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 provide security, obliging the purchaser to pull out.

Clophill Leasehold Conveyancing - A selection of Questions you should ask before buying

Please note if it is fewer than 80 years it will affect the marketability of the flat. It is worth checking with your bank that they are happy with the length of the lease. Leases with less than 80 years remaining means that you will almost definitely have to extend the lease sooner rather than later and it is worth finding out how much this would cost. Remember, in most cases you would need to own the property for a couple of years in order to be legally able to exercise a lease extension.