I've recently bought a leasehold house in Great Missenden. Am I liable to pay service charges for periods before my ownership?

In a situation where the service charge has already been demanded from the previous lessee and they have not paid you would not usually be personally liable for the arrears. Strange as it may seem, your landlord may still be able to take action to forfeit the lease. A critical element of leasehold conveyancing for your conveyancer to ensure to have an up to date clear service charge receipt before completion of your purchase. If you have a mortgage this is likely to be a requirement of your lender.

If you purchase part way through an accounting year you may be liable for charges not yet demanded even if they relate to a period prior to your purchase. In such circumstances your conveyancer would normally arrange for the seller to set aside some money to cover their part of the period (usually called a service charge retention).

I am employed by a busy estate agent office in Great Missenden where we have experienced a few leasehold sales jeopardised due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have received inconsistent advice from local Great Missenden conveyancing solicitors. Can you shed some light as to whether the owner of a flat can commence 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 can avoid having to wait 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed prior to, or at the same time as completion of the sale.

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 offer any advice when it comes to finding a Great Missenden conveyancing practice to deal with our lease extension?

If you are instructing a solicitor for your lease extension (regardless if they are a Great Missenden conveyancing firm) it is essential that they be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of conveyancing. We suggested that you speak with several firms including non Great Missenden conveyancing practices before you instructing a firm. If the firm is ALEP accredited then so much the better. Some following of questions could be helpful:

• Can they put you in touch with client in Great Missenden who can give a testimonial?

What are the legal fees for lease extension conveyancing?

Can you provide any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Great Missenden from the perspective of speeding up the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Great Missenden can be reduced if you get in touch lawyers the minute your agents start advertising the property and request that they start to put together the leasehold documentation which will be required by the purchasers’ solicitors.
• In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s consent? Have you, for example installed wooden flooring? Great Missenden leases often stipulate that internal structural changes or addition of wooden flooring necessitate a licence issued by the Landlord consenting to such works. If you dont have the paperwork in place you should not contact the landlord without contacting your solicitor first.

Some Great Missenden leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this is the case, you should notify your estate agents to make sure that the purchasers obtain financial (bank) and professional references. Any bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are able to meet the annual 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 actual amount of the service charge so that they can pass this information on to the buyers or their lawyers.

If there is a history of conflict with your landlord or managing agents it is essential that these are resolved prior to the flat being marketed. The buyers and their solicitors will be nervous about purchasing a property where there is an ongoing dispute. You may have to bite the bullet and pay 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 clearly preferable to present the dispute as historic rather than ongoing.

If you are supposed to have a share in the Management Company, you should make sure that you are holding the original share document. Organising a replacement share certificate can be a time consuming formality and slows down many a Great Missenden conveyancing deal. Where a duplicate share is necessary, do contact the company officers or managing agents (if applicable) for this as soon as possible.

We expect to complete the disposal of our £475000 apartment in Great Missenden next week. The landlords agents has quoted £348 for Certificate of Compliance, building insurance schedule and previous years service charge statements. Is the landlord entitled to charge exorbitant fees for a flat conveyance in Great Missenden?

Great Missenden conveyancing on leasehold maisonettes normally necessitates administration charges levied by managing agents :

• Answering pre-contract questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Great Missenden
• 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 Great Missenden leasehold premises is £350. For Great Missenden 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 acquired a 1 bedroom flat in Great Missenden, conveyancing formalities finalised 2004. Can you work out an approximate cost of a lease extension? Corresponding properties in Great Missenden with an extended lease are worth £192,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £65 per annum. The lease runs out on 21st October 2079

With only 54 years remaining on your lease we estimate the price of your lease extension to range between £29,500 and £34,000 as well as costs.

The figure above a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we cannot give you the actual costs in the absence of detailed investigations. You should not use the figures in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There are no doubt additional concerns that need to be considered and clearly you should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Neither should you take any other action placing reliance on this information before seeking the advice of a professional.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Great Missenden