My wife and I purchased a leasehold house in Cockermouth. Conveyancing and Britannia mortgage are in place. I have received a letter from someone saying they have taken over the reversionary interest in the property. Attached was a demand for arrears of ground rent dating back to 1993. The conveyancing practitioner in Cockermouth who previously acted has long since retired.Any advice?

The first thing you should do is contact HMLR to be sure that this person is in fact the new freeholder. It is not necessary to incur the fees of a Cockermouth conveyancing firm to do this as you can do this on the Land Registry website for less than a fiver. Rest assured that in any event, even if this is the rightful landlord, under the Limitation Act 1980 the limitation period for recovery of ground rent is six years.

I am a negotiator for a reputable estate agent office in Cockermouth where we have experienced a few leasehold sales jeopardised due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have received inconsistent advice from local Cockermouth conveyancing firms. Can you shed some light as to whether the seller of a flat can initiate the lease extension formalities for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

Provided that 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 buyer can avoid having to wait 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed 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 purchaser.

Do you have any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Cockermouth from the perspective of speeding up the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Cockermouth can be avoided if you instruct lawyers as soon as your agents start marketing the property and ask them to put together the leasehold information needed by the buyers conveyancers.
• In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s consent? In particular have you installed wooden flooring? Cockermouth leases often stipulate that internal structural changes or laying down wooden flooring necessitate a licence issued by the Landlord approving such alterations. Where you dont have the approvals in place you should not communicate with the landlord without checking with your solicitor first.
• If you have had any disputes with your landlord or managing agents it is very important that these are resolved prior to the flat being marketed. The buyers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a property where there is an ongoing dispute. You will have to accept that you will have to discharge any arrears of service charge or settle the dispute prior to completion of the sale. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled ahead of the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You will still have to reveal details of the dispute to the buyers, but it is better to reveal the dispute as over rather than unresolved.
• If you have the benefit of shareholding in the Management Company, you should ensure that you hold the original share document. Organising a replacement share certificate can be a time consuming process and slows down many a Cockermouth conveyancing deal. If a duplicate share is necessary, you should approach the company director and secretary or managing agents (where relevant) for this sooner rather than later.
• You may think that you are aware of the number of years left on your lease but it would be wise to double-check by asking your solicitors. A purchaser's lawyer will be unlikely to recommend their client to proceed with the purchase of a leasehold property the lease term is below 75 years. In the circumstances it is important at an early stage that you identify whether the lease for your property needs extending. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your home on the market for sale.

Our conveyancer has advised that he intends to complete and exchange simultaneously on the disposal of our £ 475000 flat in Cockermouth in six days. The freeholder has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Certificate of Compliance, insurance certificate and previous years service charge statements. Is the landlord entitled to charge such fees for a flat conveyance in Cockermouth?

Cockermouth conveyancing on leasehold apartments nine out of ten times involves fees being raised by managing agents :

• Answering conveyancing due diligence enquiries
• Where consent is required before sale in Cockermouth
• 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 Cockermouth leasehold property is £350. For Cockermouth 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 provide answers.

What makes a Cockermouth lease unacceptable for security purposes?

Leasehold conveyancing in Cockermouth is not unique. All leases are unique and drafting errors can sometimes mean that certain sections are erroneous. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:

• Repairing obligations to or maintain parts of the property
• A duty to insure the building
• 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

A defective lease can cause problems when trying to sell a property primarily because it impacts on the ability to obtain a mortgage on the property. HSBC Bank, The Mortgage Works, and Britannia 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 defective they may refuse to grant the mortgage, obliging the buyer to pull out.

Cockermouth Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - Examples of Queries before Purchasing

Best to be warned if a new roof is being installed or some other major work is due in the near future to be shared amongst the tenants and may well dramatically increase the the service fees or result in a specific invoice. You should want to discover as much as possible regarding the company managing the block as they will impact your use and enjoyment of the property. As the proprietor of a leasehold property you will be in the clutches of the managing agents both financially and when it comes to day to day matters like the tidiness of the communal areas. Ask other tenants what they think of them. Finally, investigate as to the dates that the maintenance charges are due to the relevant party and specifically what you get for your money.