I only have Seventy years remaining on my lease in Colsterworth. I am keen to get lease extension but my landlord is missing. What are my options?

If 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 mean that your lease can be granted an extra 90 years by the Court. You will be obliged to demonstrate that you or your lawyers have done all that could be expected to find the lessor. On the whole an enquiry agent may be helpful to conduct investigations and to produce an expert document to be accepted by the court as evidence that the landlord is indeed missing. It is advisable to get professional help from a conveyancer in relation to devolving into the landlord’s disappearance and the vesting order request to the County Court covering Colsterworth.

Last month I purchased a leasehold house in Colsterworth. Am I liable to pay service charges for periods before completion of my purchase?

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. Strange as it may seem, 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 be sure 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 am employed by a busy estate agency in Colsterworth where we have experienced a number of leasehold sales put at risk as a result of short leases. I have been given inconsistent advice from local Colsterworth conveyancing firms. Could you clarify whether the vendor of a flat can start the lease extension formalities for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

As long as the seller has owned the lease 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 to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done prior to, or simultaneously with completion of the sale.

Alternatively, it may be possible 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.

What advice can you give us when it comes to choosing a Colsterworth conveyancing firm to carry out our lease extension conveyancing?

When appointing a property lawyer for your lease extension (regardless if they are a Colsterworth conveyancing firm) it is imperative that he or she should be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of work. We recommend that you speak with several firms including non Colsterworth 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 of use:

• If the firm is not ALEP accredited then what is the reason?

What are the charges for lease extension work?

All being well we will complete the disposal of our £225000 maisonette in Colsterworth on Wednesday in a week. The management company has quoted £348 for Landlord’s certificate, insurance certificate and 3 years service charge statements. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge such fees for a flat conveyance in Colsterworth?

Colsterworth conveyancing on leasehold apartments ordinarily results in administration charges raised by management companies :

• Answering pre-contract questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Colsterworth
• 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 Colsterworth leasehold premises is £350. For Colsterworth 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 obliged to provide answers.

Colsterworth Leasehold Conveyancing - A selection of Queries Prior to Purchasing

The majority of Colsterworth leasehold properties will be liable to pay a service bill for maintenance of the building invoiced by the landlord. If you buy the apartment you will have to pay this liability, usually periodically throughout the year. This may vary from a couple of hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for buildings with lifts and large communal grounds. There will also be a rentcharge to be met annual, normally this is not a significant amount, say about £50-£100 but you should to enquire as occasionally it can be many hundreds of pounds. How many of the leaseholders are in arrears for their service charge payments? Who is in charge of the building?

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Colsterworth