Fixed-fee leasehold conveyancing in Frinton On Sea:

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Leasehold conveyancing in Frinton On Sea is more complex than freehold. Your home move will be smoother where you choose a lawyer with a wealth of experience of leasehold conveyancing in Frinton On Sea and throughout next step up in loc. The lawyers we recommend have been approved by your lender so use our search tool to check.

Frinton On Sea leasehold conveyancing: Q and A’s

Frank (my husband) and I may need to let out our Frinton On Sea 1st floor flat temporarily due to taking a sabbatical. We used a Frinton On Sea conveyancing practice in 2001 but they have since shut and we did not have the foresight to get any guidance as to whether the lease allows us to sublet. How do we find out?

Even though your last Frinton On Sea conveyancing lawyer is not available you can review your lease to check if you are permitted to let out the premises. The accepted inference is that if the deeds are silent, subletting is allowed. There may be a precondition that you are obliged to obtain consent via your landlord or some other party in advance of subletting. The net result is you not allowed to sublet in the absence of prior permission. Such consent should not be unreasonably turned down. If the lease prohibits you from subletting the property you should ask your landlord for their consent.

Estate agents have just been given the go-ahead to market my ground floor flat in Frinton On Sea.Conveyancing has not commenced but I have just received a half-yearly service charge demand – what should I do?

It best that you 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.

I am attracted to a two apartments in Frinton On Sea both have approximately 50 years unexpired on the lease term. should I be concerned?

A lease is a right to use the property for a prescribed time frame. As the lease gets shorter the value of the lease reduces and results in it becoming more costly to extend the lease. For this reason it is advisable to extend the lease term. Sometimes it is difficult to sell a property with a short lease because mortgage lenders less inclined to grant a loan on such properties. Lease extension can be a difficult process. We advise that you seek professional help from a conveyancer and surveyor with experience in this field

I work for a long established estate agent office in Frinton On Sea where we have witnessed a few leasehold sales jeopardised as a result of short leases. I have been given conflicting advice from local Frinton On Sea conveyancing firms. Can you confirm whether the seller of a flat can initiate the lease extension process for the buyer?

As long as the seller has owned the lease for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. This means that the buyer can avoid having to wait 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed prior to, or simultaneously with completion of the sale.

Alternatively, it may be possible to extend the lease informally by agreement with the landlord 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 buyer.

Can you provide any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Frinton On Sea from the point of view of expediting the sale process?

  • Much of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Frinton On Sea can be reduced if you appoint lawyers as soon as you market your property and request that they start to collate the leasehold documentation which will be required by the buyers lawyers.
  • The majority landlords or managing agents in Frinton On Sea levy fees for supplying management packs for a leasehold premises. You or your lawyers should enquire as to the fee that they propose to charge. The management pack can be applied for as soon as you have a buyer, thus accelerating the process. The typical amount of time it takes to receive management information is three weeks. It is the most usual cause of delay in leasehold conveyancing in Frinton On Sea.
  • If there is a history of conflict with your landlord or managing agents it is essential that these are resolved before the property is marketed. The buyers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a flat where a dispute is unsettled. You may need to swallow your pride and discharge any arrears of service charge or resolve 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 will still have to reveal details of the dispute to the buyers, but it is clearly preferable to reveal the dispute as historic as opposed to unresolved.
  • If you hold a share in a the freehold, you should ensure that you have the original share certificate. Obtaining a new share certificate is often a time consuming process and frustrates many a Frinton On Sea conveyancing transaction. If a reissued share certificate is required, you should approach the company officers or managing agents (if relevant) for this at the earliest opportunity.
  • You believe that you know the number of years left on your lease but it would be advisable double-check via your conveyancers. A buyer’s conveyancer will not be happy to advise their client to where the remaining number of years is under 75 years. It is therefore important at an as soon as possible that you identify whether the lease requires a lease extension. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your premises on the market for sale.

    • Frinton On Sea Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - Examples of Queries before buying

      Who takes responsibility for maintaining and repairing the building? Where a Frinton On Sea lease has less than 80 years it will have adverse implications on the marketability of the flat. It is worth checking with your mortgage company that they are content with remaining years on the lease. Leases with fewer than 80 years remaining means that you will most likely require a lease extension at some point and it is worth discovering how much this will be. Remember, in most cases you will need to own the premises for a couple of years in order to be entitled to exercise a lease extension. The prefered form of lease structure is where the freehold reversion is in the ownership of the leaseholders. In this scenario the tenants have being in charge if their destiny and notwithstanding that a managing agent is often employed if the building is bigger than a house conversion, the managing agent is directed by the tenants.

    Other Topics

    Lease Extensions in Frinton On Sea