I have just started marketing my basement apartment in Ditchling.Conveyancing has not commenced but I have just had a yearly maintenance charge demand – what should I do?

It best that you pay the service charge as normal because all ground rent and service charges will be apportioned on completion, so you will be reimbursed by the buyer for the period running from after the completion date to the next payment date. Most management companies will not acknowledge the buyer unless the service charges have been paid and are up to date so it is important for both buyer and seller for the seller to show that they are up to date. Having a clear account will assist your cause and will leave you no worse off financially.

Back In 2002, I bought a leasehold flat in Ditchling. Conveyancing and The Royal Bank of Scotland mortgage organised. A letter has just been received from someone claiming to own the reversionary interest in the property. It included a ground rent demand for rent dating back to 1997. The conveyancing practitioner in Ditchling who previously acted has now retired.What should I do?

First contact the Land Registry to be sure that this person is indeed the registered owner of the freehold reversion. It is not necessary to incur the fees of a Ditchling conveyancing firm to do this as you can do this on the Land Registry website for £3. You should note that regardless, even if this is the rightful landlord, under the Limitation Act 1980 no more than 6 years of rent can be collected.

I am looking at a couple of flats in Ditchling both have approximately fifty years left on the lease term. Should I regard a short lease as a deal breaker?

There are plenty of short leases in Ditchling. The lease is a legal document that entitles you to use the property for a prescribed time frame. As the lease shortens the saleability of the lease deteriorate and it becomes more costly to acquire a lease extension. For this reason it is often a good idea to extend the lease term. Sometimes it is difficulties arise selling premises with a short lease because mortgage lenders may be reluctant to lend money on such properties. Lease extension can be a protracted process. We recommend you get professional assistance from a solicitor and surveyor with experience in this field

I work for a long established estate agency in Ditchling where we have witnessed a number of flat sales jeopardised as a result of short leases. I have received conflicting advice from local Ditchling conveyancing firms. Please can you shed some light as to whether the owner of a flat can commence the lease extension process for the buyer?

Provided that 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. The benefit of this is 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 before, or simultaneously with completion of the disposal of the property.

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 buyer.

We expect to complete the sale of our £350000 maisonette in Ditchling next Friday . The landlords agents has quoted £408 for Landlord’s certificate, building insurance schedule and 3 years statements of service charge. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge such fees for a flat conveyance in Ditchling?

For most leasehold sales in Ditchling conveyancing will involve, questions about the management of a building inevitably needing to be answered directly by the freeholder or its agent, this includes :

• Addressing pre-contract questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Ditchling
• 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 Ditchling leasehold property is £350. For Ditchling 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.

Ditchling Leasehold Conveyancing - Examples of Questions you should ask Prior to buying

Where a Ditchling lease has fewer than eighty years it will have adverse implications on the marketability of the apartment. It is worth checking with your lender that they are happy with residual term of the lease. Leases with less than 80 years remaining means that you will probably need a lease extension at some point and it is worth finding out how much this will be. Remember, in most cases you will be required to have been the owner of the premises for a couple of years in order to be entitled to carry out a lease extension. Is anyone aware of any major works in the near future that will likely add a premium to the maintenance fees? Best to be warned whether a new roof is being put on or some other major work is coming up that will be shared amongst the tenants and may well dramatically impact the level of the maintenance costs or result in a one off payment.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Ditchling