My partner and I may need to sub-let our Filey ground floor flat temporarily due to a career opportunity. We used a Filey conveyancing practice in 2003 but they have since shut 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 the relationship between the landlord and you the leaseholder; specifically, it will indicate if subletting is banned, or permitted but only subject to certain conditions. The accepted inference is that if the lease contains no specific ban or restriction, subletting is permitted. The majority of leases in Filey do not contain an absolute prevention of subletting – such a provision would adversely affect the market value the property. Instead, there is usually simply a requirement that the owner notifies the freeholder, possibly sending a copy of the sublease.

I only have 62 years remaining on my flat in Filey. I now want to extend my lease but my landlord is can not be found. What should I do?

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 magistrate. However, you will be required to prove that you have made all reasonable attempts to locate the freeholder. On the whole a specialist should be helpful to try and locate and prepare a report which can be accepted by the court as proof that the landlord is indeed missing. It is advisable to get professional help from a solicitor both on devolving into the landlord’s absence and the application to the County Court covering Filey.

I have just appointed agents to market my basement apartment in Filey.Conveyancing is yet to be initiated but I have just received a quarterly maintenance charge invoice – Do I pay up?

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

Can you provide any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Filey with the aim of expediting the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Filey can be reduced if you appoint lawyers as soon as you market your property and request that they start to collate the leasehold information needed by the purchasers’ lawyers.
• The majority freeholders or managing agents in Filey charge for supplying management packs for a leasehold property. You or your lawyers should enquire as to the fee that they propose to charge. The management information can be applied for as soon as you have a buyer, thus accelerating the process. The typical amount of time it takes to obtain the necessary information is three weeks. It is the most common cause of delay in leasehold conveyancing in Filey.

A minority of Filey leases require Landlord’s consent to the sale and approval of the buyers. If this applies to your lease, it would be prudent to notify your estate agents to make sure that the purchasers put in hand financial (bank) and professional references. Any bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are financially capable of paying 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 service charge figures so that they can pass this information on to the purchasers or their lawyers.

If there is a history of 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 property where there is an ongoing dispute. You will have to accept that you will have to discharge any arrears of service charge or settle the dispute prior to completion of the sale. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled prior to the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You are still duty bound to disclose particulars of the dispute to the purchasers, but it is clearly preferable to present the dispute as historic rather than ongoing.

You believe that you know the number of years left on your lease but you should verify this by asking your lawyers. A buyer’s conveyancer will not be happy to advise their client to proceed with the purchase of a leasehold property the remaining number of years is below 80 years. It is therefore important at an as soon as possible that you identify whether the lease for your property needs extending. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your property on the market for sale.

Our conveyancer has advised that he intends to complete and exchange simultaneously on our sale of a £200000 maisonette in Filey next week. The managing agents has quoted £348 for Landlord’s certificate, building insurance schedule and 3 years statements of service charge. Is the landlord entitled to charge such fees for a flat conveyance in Filey?

Filey conveyancing on leasehold flats normally involves fees being invoiced by freeholders :

• Addressing pre-exchange questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Filey
• Supplying insurance information
• Deeds of covenant upon sale
• Registering of the assignment of the change of lessee after a sale

Your conveyancer will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for Filey leasehold property is £350. For Filey 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 the information.

Filey Leasehold Conveyancing - A selection of Questions you should consider Prior to Purchasing

You should be aware that where the lease has fewer than 80 years it will have adverse implications on the marketability of the apartment. Check with your mortgage company that they are content with residual term of the lease. A short lease means that you will probably have to extend the lease at some point and you need to have some idea of how much this would cost. Remember, in most cases you would need to own the residence for two years in order to be eligible to exercise a lease extension. This information is important as a) areas could result in problems for the building as the common areas may start to deteriorate where maintenance are not paid for b) if the leasehold owners have a dispute with the running of the building you will wish to have all the details Best to be warned whether fixing the lift or some other major work is due shortly to be shared between the leaseholders and could well materially increase the the maintenance charges or require a one time invoice.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Filey