Planning to sign contracts shortly on a ground floor flat in East Riding Villages. Conveyancing lawyers assured me that they will have a report out to me on Monday. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?

The report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in East Riding Villages should include some of the following:

• You should be sent a copy of the lease

I have just started marketing my garden flat in East Riding Villages.Conveyancing is yet to be initiated but I have just had a quarterly maintenance charge demand – Do I pay up?

It best that you clear 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.

I am tempted by the attractive purchase price for a couple of apartments in East Riding Villages which have in the region of 50 years remaining on the leases. Will this present a problem?

There are no two ways about it. A leasehold apartment in East Riding Villages is a deteriorating asset as a result of the shortening lease. The closer the lease gets to its expiry date, the more it adversely affects the salability of the premises. The majority of purchasers and lenders, leases with under 75 years become less and less marketable. On a more positive note, leaseholders can extend their leases by serving a Section 42 Notice. One stipulation is that they must have owned the premises for two years (unlike a Section 13 notice for purchasing the freehold, when leaseholders can participate from day one of ownership). When successful, they will have the right to an extension of 90 years to the current term and ground rent is effectively reduced to zero. Before moving forward with a purchase of a residence with a short lease term remaining you should talk to a solicitor specialising in lease extensions and leasehold enfranchisement. We are are happy to put you in touch with East Riding Villages conveyancing experts who will explain the options available to you during an initial telephone conversation free of charge. A more straightforward and quicker method of extending would be to contact your landlord directly and sound him out on the prospect of extending the lease You may find he or she is happy to negotiate informally and willing to consider your offer straight off, without having to involve anyone else. This will save you time and money and it could help you reach a lower price on the lease. You need to ensure that the agreed terms represent good long-term value compared with the standard benefits of the Section 42 Notice and that onerous clauses are not inserted into any redrafting of the lease.

I work for a long established estate agent office in East Riding Villages where we have experienced a number of flat sales derailed due to short leases. I have received conflicting advice from local East Riding Villages conveyancing firms. Please can you shed some light as to whether the vendor of a flat can start the lease extension formalities 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 buyer need not have 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.

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.

What advice can you give us when it comes to appointing a East Riding Villages conveyancing firm to deal with our lease extension?

When appointing a conveyancer for lease extension works (regardless if they are a East Riding Villages conveyancing firm) it is most important that he or she should be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of conveyancing. We suggested that you speak with two or three firms including non East Riding Villages conveyancing practices before you instructing a firm. Where the conveyancing practice is ALEP accredited then so much the better. Some following of questions could be helpful:

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

East Riding Villages Leasehold Conveyancing - Examples of Queries Prior to Purchasing

Where a East Riding Villages lease has no more than 80 years it will affect the value of the property. It is worth checking with your lender that they are happy with the length of the lease. Leases with fewer than 80 years remaining means that you will almost definitely require a lease extension at some point and it is worth finding out what this would cost. For most East Riding Villageslease extensions you will need to own the premises for 24 months before you are entitled to extend the lease. How much is the annual maintenance fee and ground rent? Most East Riding Villages leasehold properties will have a service bill for the upkeep of the building levied on behalf of the management company. Should you purchase the apartment you will have to meet this liability, normally in instalments throughout the year. This may be anything from a couple of hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for buildings with lifts and large common grounds. There will also be a ground rent for you to pay annual, this is usually not a significant figure, say approximately £50-£100 but you should to enquire as occasionally it could be prohibitively expensive.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in East Riding Villages