Leasehold Conveyancing in Gillingham - Get a Quote from the leasehold experts approved by your lender

Get a Quote

Need to find a solicitor for leasehold conveyancing in Gillingham on your lender’s panel? Make use of our search tool to find leading local Gillingham conveyancing lawyers or national solicitors on your lender’s panel .

Examples of recent questions relating to leasehold conveyancing in Gillingham

Helen (my wife) and I may need to rent out our Gillingham basement flat for a while due to a new job. We instructed a Gillingham 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 Gillingham conveyancing lawyer is no longer available you can review your lease to see if you are permitted to let out the apartment. The accepted inference is that if the lease is non-specific, subletting is permitted. There may be a precondition that you are obliged to seek consent via your landlord or other appropriate person in advance of subletting. This means that you cannot sublet without first obtaining permission. Such consent must not not be unreasonably withheld. If the lease prohibits you from letting out the property you will need to ask your landlord for their consent.

Expecting to exchange soon on a basement flat in Gillingham. Conveyancing solicitors assured me that they are sending me a report within the next couple of days. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?

Your report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in Gillingham should include some of the following:

  • The unexpired lease term You should be advised as what happens when the lease ends, and informed of the importance of the 80 year mark
  • Details of the parties to the lease, for example these could be the leaseholder (you), head lessor, freeholder
  • You need to be told what counts as a Nuisance in the lease
  • Ground rent - how much and when you need to pay, and also know whether this is subject to change
  • An explanation as to the provision in the lease to pay service charges - with regard to both the building, and the more general rights a leaseholder has
  • 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? For a comprehensive list of information to be included in your report on your leasehold property in Gillingham please ask your conveyancer in ahead of your conveyancing in Gillingham

    • Back In 2004, I bought a leasehold flat in Gillingham. Conveyancing and Norwich and Peterborough Building Society mortgage are in place. A letter has just been received from someone saying they have taken over the reversionary interest in the property. It included a demand for arrears of ground rent dating back to 1991. The conveyancing solicitor in Gillingham who previously acted has now retired.What should I do?

    First make enquiries of the Land Registry to make sure that this person is in fact the registered owner of the freehold reversion. It is not necessary to incur the fees of a Gillingham conveyancing lawyer to do this as you can do this on the Land Registry website for less than a fiver. You should note that regardless, even if this is the legitimate freeholder, under the Limitation Act 1980 no more than 6 years of rent can be collected.

    I am a negotiator for a long established estate agency in Gillingham where we see a few leasehold sales jeopardised as a result of leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given inconsistent advice from local Gillingham conveyancing solicitors. Could you shed some light as to whether the seller of a flat can initiate the lease extension formalities for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

    Provided that the seller has owned the lease for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to kick-start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. The benefit of this is that the buyer need not have to sit tight for 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed before, or at the same time as completion of the disposal of the property.

    An alternative approach is to agree the lease extension with the freeholder 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 Gillingham from the perspective of saving time on the sale process?

    • Much of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Gillingham can be avoided if you get in touch lawyers as soon as you market your property and ask them to put together the leasehold documentation needed by the buyers representatives.
    • In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s permission? Have you, for example laid down wooden flooring? Gillingham leases often stipulate that internal structural changes or addition of wooden flooring require a licence issued by the Landlord approving such changes. Where you fail to have the consents to hand you should not contact the landlord without contacting your conveyancer first.
  • A minority of Gillingham leases require Landlord’s consent to the sale and approval of the buyers. If this applies to your lease, you should notify your estate agents to make sure that the purchasers put in hand bank and professional references. The bank reference should make it clear that the buyer is able to meet 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 buyers or their lawyers.
  • If you have had any disputes with your landlord or managing agents it is essential that these are resolved prior to the flat being put on the market. The purchasers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a flat where a dispute is ongoing. You will have to accept that you will have to 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 are still duty bound to disclose details of the dispute to the purchasers, but it is clearly preferable to reveal the dispute as over rather than unsettled.
  • You believe that you know the number of years remaining on your lease but you should double-check via your solicitors. A buyer’s lawyer will not be happy to advise their client to proceed with the purchase of a leasehold property the lease term is less than 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 property on the market for sale.

    • I bought a 1st floor flat in Gillingham, conveyancing having been completed 5 years ago. Can you let me have an estimated range of the fair premium for a lease extension? Similar properties in Gillingham with an extended lease are worth £260,000. The ground rent is £50 yearly. The lease ends on 21st October 2102

    With 77 years unexpired the likely cost is going to range between £8,600 and £9,800 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 provide the actual costs without more detailed investigations. You should not use the figures in tribunal or court proceedings. There may be additional concerns that need to be considered and you obviously want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Neither should you take any other action placing reliance on this information without first seeking the advice of a professional.

    Other Topics

    Lease Extensions in Gillingham