My husband and I may need to rent out our Flamborough ground floor flat for a while due to a career opportunity. We instructed a Flamborough conveyancing practice in 2001 but they have since shut and we did not have the foresight to get any advice as to whether the lease permits subletting. How do we find out?

Notwithstanding that your previous Flamborough conveyancing solicitor is no longer around you can check your lease to check if it allows you to sublet the apartment. The accepted inference is that if the lease is non-specific, subletting is allowed. Quite often there is a prerequisite that you must seek consent via your landlord or other appropriate person before subletting. This means that you cannot sublet in the absence of first obtaining consent. Such consent is not allowed to be unreasonably refused ore delayed. If the lease does not allow you to sublet you will need to ask your landlord for their consent.

I have recently realised that I have 68 years left on my lease in Flamborough. I now want to extend my lease but my landlord is absent. What should I do?

On the basis that you meet the appropriate requirements, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the County Court for an order to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will mean that your lease can be granted an extra 90 years by the magistrate. You will be obliged to demonstrate that you have used your best endeavours to track down the landlord. On the whole an enquiry agent should be helpful to conduct investigations and to produce a report which can be accepted by the court as proof that the freeholder is indeed missing. It is advisable to get professional help from a property lawyer both on devolving into the landlord’s absence and the application to the County Court overseeing Flamborough.

Back In 2003, I bought a leasehold flat in Flamborough. Conveyancing and Barclays mortgage are in place. A letter has just been received from someone claiming to own the reversionary interest in the property. Attached was a demand for arrears of ground rent dating back to 1994. The conveyancing practitioner in Flamborough who acted for me is not around.Do I pay?

First make enquiries of HMLR to be sure that the individual purporting to own the freehold is in fact the registered owner of the freehold reversion. There is no need to instruct a Flamborough conveyancing lawyer to do this as it can be done on-line for £3. Rest assured that regardless, even if this is the rightful landlord, under the Limitation Act 1980 the limitation period for recovery of ground rent is six years.

I am attracted to a couple of maisonettes in Flamborough both have approximately forty five years left on the lease term. should I be concerned?

There is no doubt about it. A leasehold flat in Flamborough is a wasting asset as a result of the reducing lease term. The closer the lease gets to zero years unexpired, the more it reduces the salability of the premises. For most buyers 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 premises 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 Flamborough 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 They may agree to a smaller lump sum and an increase in the ground rent, but to shorter extension terms in return. You need to ensure that any new 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.

Completion in due on the sale of our £125000 garden flat in Flamborough next Thursday . The management company has quoted £336 for Landlord’s certificate, building insurance schedule and 3 years statements of service charge. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge exorbitant fees for a leasehold conveyance in Flamborough?

Flamborough conveyancing on leasehold maisonettes usually involves the purchaser’s solicitor submitting enquiries for the landlord to address. Although the landlord is under no legal obligation to answer these enquiries most will be content to do so. They are entitled invoice a reasonable administration fee for responding to enquiries or supplying documentation. There is no upper cap for such fees. The average costs for the paperwork that you are referring to is over three hundred pounds, in some situations it is in excess of £800. The management information fee levied by the landlord must be sent together with a synopsis of entitlements and obligations in respect of administration charges, otherwise the invoice is technically not due. In reality you have little option but to pay whatever is requested of you should you wish to sell the property.

Flamborough Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - A selection of Questions you should ask before buying

Can you tell me if there are any major works anticipated that will likely increase the maintenance costs? If a Flamborough lease has less than eighty years it will affect the salability of the flat. Check with your lender that they are happy with the length of the lease. A short lease means that you will most likely have to extend the lease sooner rather than later and you need to have some idea of how much this will be. For most Flamboroughlease extensions you will need to own the property for a couple of years in order to be entitled to extend the lease. What is the length of the lease?

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Flamborough