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

Assuming the lease is recorded at the land registry - and almost all are in Egremont - 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.

Helen (my wife) and I may need to rent out our Egremont ground floor flat temporarily due to taking a sabbatical. We used a Egremont conveyancing practice in 2002 but they have closed and we did not think at the time get any guidance as to whether the lease permits subletting. How do we find out?

Your lease dictates relations between the freeholder and you the leaseholder; in particular, it will say if subletting is banned, or permitted but only subject to certain caveats. The rule is that if the lease contains no expres ban or restriction, subletting is allowed. The majority of leases in Egremont do not prevent subletting altogether – such a clause would adversely affect the market value the property. Instead, there is usually a basic requirement that the owner notifies the freeholder, possibly sending a copy of the tenancy agreement.

I've recently bought a leasehold flat in Egremont. Am I liable to pay service charges relating to a period prior to my ownership?

Where the service charge has already been demanded from the previous lessee and they have not paid you would not usually be personally liable for the arrears. However, 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).

If all goes to plan we aim to complete the sale of our £175000 garden flat in Egremont in just under a week. The freeholder has quoted £384 for Landlord’s certificate, insurance certificate and 3 years service charge statements. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge such fees for a flat conveyance in Egremont?

Egremont conveyancing on leasehold maisonettes ordinarily results in administration charges levied by managing agents :

• Answering conveyancing due diligence questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Egremont
• 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 lawyer will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for Egremont leasehold premises is £350. For Egremont 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 obliged to supply the information.

What makes a Egremont lease unmortgageable?

There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Egremont. All leases are individual and drafting errors can sometimes mean that certain provisions are wrong. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:

• A provision to repair to or maintain parts 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 will likely cause problems when trying to sell a property as they can affect a potential buyer’s ability to obtain a mortgage. Accord Mortgages Ltd, Virgin Money, and Barclays Direct all have very detailed conveyancing instructions when it comes to what is expected in a lease. Where a lender has been advised by their lawyers that the lease is problematic they may refuse to provide security, forcing the purchaser to withdraw.

Leasehold Conveyancing in Egremont - Sample of Queries before buying

It would be prudent to investigate if there are any onerous prohibitions in the lease. For instance it is fairly common in Egremont leases that pets are not permitted in in a block in Egremont. If you love the propertyin Egremont yet your cat is not allowed to move with you then you will be faced hard choice. You will want to discover as much as you can regarding the managing agents as they can either make life much easier or problematic. Being a leasehold owner you will be at the mercy of the managing agents both financially and when it comes to practical matters like the upkeep of the communal areas. You should not be afraid to ask prospective neighbours what they think of them. Finally, find out the dates that the maintenance charges are due to the appropriate party and specifically what it includes. The prefered form of lease structure is where the freehold title is in the ownership of the leaseholders. In this situation the leaseholders benefit from being in charge if their destiny and although a managing agent is often retained if the building is bigger than a house conversion, the managing agent employed by the leaseholders.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Egremont