My wife and I may need to sub-let our Egremont basement flat for a while due to a career opportunity. We instructed a Egremont conveyancing practice in 2003 but they have since shut and we did not have the foresight to seek any guidance as to whether the lease allows us to sublet. How do we find out?

Even though your last Egremont conveyancing lawyer is not available you can check your lease to see if you are permitted to let out the premises. The rule is that if the deeds are non-specific, subletting is allowed. There may be a precondition that you must obtain permission via your landlord or some other party before subletting. The net result is that you cannot sublet without first obtaining consent. Such consent must not not be unreasonably turned down. If the lease prohibits you from letting out the property you should ask your landlord for their consent.

Having checked my lease I have discovered that there are only Sixty One years remaining on my lease in Egremont. I need to extend my lease but my freeholder is can not be found. What are my options?

On the basis that you qualify, 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 granted an extra 90 years by the Court. However, you will be required to prove that you or your lawyers have made all reasonable attempts to locate the lessor. On the whole a specialist would be useful to conduct investigations and prepare an expert document to be accepted by the court as proof that the freeholder is indeed missing. It is wise to seek advice from a property lawyer both on proving the landlord’s disappearance and the application to the County Court overseeing Egremont.

I have just appointed agents to market my basement flat in Egremont.Conveyancing solicitors are to be appointed soon but I have just received a yearly maintenance charge demand – Do I pay up?

The sensible thing to do is pay the invoice 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. This will smooth the conveyancing process.

I work for a long established estate agent office in Egremont where we have witnessed a number of leasehold sales jeopardised due to short leases. I have received contradictory information from local Egremont conveyancing firms. Can you shed some light as to whether the vendor of a flat can start the lease extension formalities for the buyer?

Provided that the seller has been the owner 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 proposed purchaser can avoid having to sit tight for 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done prior to, or at the same time as completion of the sale.

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 purchaser.

Do you have any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Egremont from the perspective of saving time on the sale process?

• Much of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Egremont can be avoided where you appoint lawyers the minute you market your property and ask them to put together the leasehold information needed by the buyers lawyers.
• A minority of Egremont leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this applies to your lease, it would be prudent to place the estate agents on notice to make sure that the purchasers obtain bank and professional references. Any bank reference should make it clear that the buyer is able to meet the yearly service charge and the actual amount of the service charge should be quoted in the bank’s letter. You will therefore need to provide your estate agents with the actual amount of the service charge so that they can pass this information on to the purchasers or their lawyers.

Leasehold Conveyancing in Egremont - Examples of Questions you should ask before Purchasing

It is important to be aware if changing the roof or some other major work is pending to be shared amongst the leaseholders and may well materially impact the level of the service charges or require a specific invoice. Are there any major works in the near future that could increase the service fees? If a Egremont lease has fewer than eighty years it will have adverse implications on the value of the apartment. Check with your mortgage company that they are willing to lend given the lease term. A short lease means that you will most likely require a lease extension at some point and it is worth discovering what this would cost. For most Egremontlease extensions you would need to own the residence for 24 months in order to be eligible to carry out a lease extension.

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Lease Extensions in Egremont