Expecting to exchange soon on a leasehold property in Ellesmere Port. Conveyancing lawyers have said that they will have a report out to me tomorrow. What should I be looking out for?

The report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in Ellesmere Port should include some of the following:

• You should be sent a copy of the lease

The unexpired lease term You should be advised as what happens when the lease expires, and informed of the importance of the 80 year mark

Does the lease prevent you from renting out the property, or having a home office for business

Repair and maintenance of the flat

Whether the landlord has obligations to ensure rights of quiet enjoyment over your premises and do you know what it means in practice?

The landlord’s obligations to repair and maintain the building. It is important that you know who is responsible for the repair and maintenance of every part of the building

What options are open to you if a neighbour is in violation of a provision in their lease? For a comprehensive list of information to be contained in your report on your leasehold property in Ellesmere Port please ask your conveyancer in ahead of your conveyancing in Ellesmere Port

Estate agents have just been given the go-ahead to market my ground floor flat in Ellesmere Port.Conveyancing solicitors are to be appointed soon but I have just received a half-yearly service charge invoice – Do I pay up?

Your conveyancing lawyer is likely to suggest that you should clear 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 managing agents will not acknowledge the buyer until 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.

My wife and I purchased a leasehold flat in Ellesmere Port. Conveyancing and Accord Mortgages Ltd mortgage are in place. I have received a letter from someone claiming to own the reversionary interest in the property. Attached was a demand for arrears of ground rent dating back to 1996. The conveyancing solicitor in Ellesmere Port who previously acted has now retired.What should I do?

First contact HMLR to make sure that the individual claiming to own the freehold is indeed the new freeholder. It is not necessary to incur the fees of a Ellesmere Port conveyancing solicitor to do this as you can do this on the Land Registry website for less than a fiver. You should note that in any event, even if this is the rightful landlord, under the Limitation Act 1980 no more than 6 years of rent can be collected.

Can you provide any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Ellesmere Port from the perspective of expediting the sale process?

• Much of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Ellesmere Port can be bypassed if you get in touch lawyers as soon as your agents start marketing the property and request that they start to put together the leasehold information which will be required by the buyers lawyers.
• Many landlords or managing agents in Ellesmere Port charge for providing management packs for a leasehold property. You or your lawyers should discover the actual amount of the charges. The management pack can be applied for on or before finding a buyer, thus reducing delays. The typical amount of time it takes to receive management information is three weeks. It is the most usual cause of frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Ellesmere Port.

If you have had any disputes with your landlord or managing agents it is essential that these are settled prior to the flat being put on the market. The buyers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a flat where there is an ongoing dispute. You may need to swallow your pride and discharge any arrears of service charge or settle the dispute prior to the buyers completing the purchase. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled ahead of the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You will still have to reveal details of the dispute to the purchasers, but it is better to reveal the dispute as historic as opposed to unresolved.

If you have the benefit of shareholding in the Management Company, you should ensure that you have the original share document. Arranging a re-issued share certificate can be a time consuming formality and frustrates many a Ellesmere Port home move. Where a duplicate share certificate is necessary, do contact the company director and secretary or managing agents (if applicable) for this at the earliest opportunity.

You believe that you know the number of years left on your lease but it would be wise to verify this by asking your solicitors. A purchaser's conveyancer will be unlikely to recommend their client to where the lease term is below 80 years. It is therefore important at an early stage that you consider whether the lease term requires a lease extension. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your premises on the market for sale.

Completion in due on our sale of a £300000 garden flat in Ellesmere Port on Thursday in a week. The managing agents has quoted £408 for Landlord’s certificate, insurance certificate and 3 years statements of service charge. Is the landlord entitled to charge such fees for a flat conveyance in Ellesmere Port?

Ellesmere Port conveyancing on leasehold flats nine out of ten times involves administration charges raised by freeholders :

• Answering conveyancing due diligence enquiries
• Where consent is required before sale in Ellesmere Port
• 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 Ellesmere Port leasehold premises is £350. For Ellesmere Port 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 provide answers.

I bought a 1 bedroom flat in Ellesmere Port, conveyancing having been completed in 1998. How much will my lease extension cost? Corresponding properties in Ellesmere Port with an extended lease are worth £260,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £65 charged once a year. The lease runs out on 21st October 2096

You have 73 years left to run we estimate the premium for your lease extension to be between £10,500 and £12,000 as well as plus your own and the landlord's "reasonable" professional fees.

The suggested premium range above a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we are not able to advice on the actual costs without more comprehensive due diligence. You should not use this information in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There are no doubt other issues that need to be taken into account and you obviously should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. You should not move forward based on this information before getting professional advice.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Ellesmere Port