Having had my offer accepted I require leasehold conveyancing in Crewe. Before diving in I would like to find out the remaining lease term.

Assuming the lease is registered - and 99.9% are in Crewe - then the leasehold title will always include the basic details 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.

Having checked my lease I have discovered that there are only Sixty One years left on my flat in Crewe. I need to extend my lease but my landlord is absent. What should I do?

On the basis that you meet the appropriate requirements, 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 enable the lease to be extended by the magistrate. However, you will be required to demonstrate that you or your lawyers have used your best endeavours to track down the landlord. In some cases a specialist would be helpful to try and locate and to produce a report to be accepted by the court as proof that the landlord can not be located. It is advisable to get professional help from a property lawyer in relation to investigating the landlord’s absence and the vesting order request to the County Court overseeing Crewe.

My wife and I purchased a leasehold flat in Crewe. Conveyancing and Lloyds TSB Bank mortgage went though with no issue. I have received a letter from someone claiming to own the reversionary interest in the property. It included a demand for arrears of ground rent dating back to 1994. The conveyancing practitioner in Crewe who acted for me is not around.What should I do?

The first thing you should do is contact the Land Registry to be sure that the individual claiming to own the freehold is in fact the registered owner of the freehold reversion. You do not need to incur the fees of a Crewe conveyancing solicitor to do this as it can be done on-line for £3. Rest assured that regardless, even if this is the legitimate landlord, under the Limitation Act 1980 the limitation period for recovery of ground rent is six years.

I am attracted to a two flats in Crewe both have in the region of forty five years left on the leases. Will this present a problem?

A lease is a legal document that entitles you to use the premises for a period of time. As a lease shortens the marketability of the lease reduces and it becomes more expensive to extend the lease. For this reason it is often a good idea to extend the lease term. It is often difficult to sell a property with a short lease because mortgage companies may be reluctant to lend money on such properties. Lease extension can be a protracted process. We recommend you seek professional assistance from a conveyancer and surveyor with experience in this field

Are there frequently found deficiencies that you come across in leases for Crewe properties?

Leasehold conveyancing in Crewe is not unique. All leases are individual and legal mistakes in the legal wording can sometimes mean that certain provisions 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 premises
• A duty to insure the building
• Clauses dealing with recovering service charges for expenditure on the building or common parts.
• Maintenance charge proportions which don’t add up to the correct percentage

You will have difficulties when selling your property if you have a defective lease primarily because it impacts on the ability to obtain a mortgage on the property. Barclays , Skipton Building Society, and Bank of Ireland all have express conveyancing instructions when it comes to what is expected in a lease. If a mortgage lender believes that the lease is defective they may refuse to grant the mortgage, forcing the buyer to withdraw.

Crewe Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - A selection of Queries Prior to Purchasing

Many Crewe leasehold apartments will have a service bill for maintenance of the building levied by the management company. If you purchase the apartment you will have to meet this charge, usually periodically during the year. This could be anything from a few hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for bigger purpose-built buildings. In all likelihood there will be a ground rent for you to pay annual, ordinarily this is not a large figure, say about £25-£75 but you need to enquire it because sometimes it could be surprisingly expensive. Its a good idea to discover as much as you can about the managing agents as they will affect your use and enjoyment of the property. Being a leasehold owner you are often in the clutches of the managing agents both financially and when it comes to practical matters like the tidiness of the communal areas. You should not be shy to ask prospective neighbours if they are happy with their management. On a final note, find out the dates that you are obliged pay the maintenance charge to the managing agents and specifically how they are spending that money. Is there a share of the freehold?

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Crewe