Having checked my lease I have discovered that there are only 62 years left on my lease in Crowborough. I now want 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 lengthened by the Court. You will be obliged to demonstrate that you or your lawyers have used your best endeavours to find the landlord. On the whole an enquiry agent should be useful to try and locate and to produce a report to be used as evidence that the landlord can not be located. It is advisable to get professional help from a property lawyer both on devolving into the landlord’s disappearance and the vesting order request to the County Court covering Crowborough.

I am attracted to a couple of flats in Crowborough both have about forty five years left on the lease term. Do I need to be concerned?

A lease is a right to use the premises for a prescribed time frame. As a lease shortens the marketability of the lease deteriorate and results in it becoming more costly to extend the lease. For this reason it is generally wise to increase the term of the lease. Sometimes it is difficulties arise selling premises with a short lease as mortgage lenders may be reluctant to lend money on such properties. Lease extension can be a difficult process. We recommend you seek professional assistance from a conveyancer and surveyor with experience in this field

Last month I purchased a leasehold property in Crowborough. Do I have any liability for service charges for periods before my ownership?

Where the service charge has already been demanded from the previous owner 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 a negotiator for a long established estate agency in Crowborough where we see a few flat sales jeopardised as a result of leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given inconsistent advice from local Crowborough conveyancing solicitors. Can you confirm whether the vendor of a flat can commence the lease extension process 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 commence the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. The benefit of this is that the proposed purchaser can avoid having to sit tight for 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed before, or at the same time as completion of the disposal of the property.

Alternatively, it may be possible to extend the lease informally by agreement with the landlord 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.

Are there common deficiencies that you come across in leases for Crowborough properties?

There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Crowborough. All leases are unique and legal mistakes in the legal wording can sometimes mean that certain clauses are erroneous. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:

• Repairing obligations to or maintain elements of the property
• A duty to insure the building
• Clauses dealing with recovering service charges for expenditure on the building or common parts.
• 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 as they can affect a potential buyer’s ability to obtain a mortgage. Yorkshire Building Society, Bank of Scotland, and Aldermore all have express conveyancing instructions when it comes to what is expected in a lease. If a mortgage lender believes that the lease does not cover certain provisions they may refuse to grant the mortgage, obliging the buyer to withdraw.

Leasehold Conveyancing in Crowborough - Examples of Queries before Purchasing

It would be prudent to enquire if the the lease includes any unreasonable restrictions in the lease. For instance plenty of leases prohibit pets being allowed in certain buildings in Crowborough. If you love the flatin Crowborough yet your cat can’t make the move with you then you will be presented with a difficult compromise. Are any of leasehold owners in arrears of their service charge payments?