Having checked my lease I have discovered that there are only 72 years remaining on my lease in Great Sankey. I now want to get lease extension but my landlord is missing. 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 for permission 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. However, you will be required to prove that you have used your best endeavours to find the freeholder. On the whole a specialist should be useful to conduct investigations and to produce a report which can be used as evidence that the freeholder can not be located. It is wise to seek advice from a conveyancer in relation to devolving into the landlord’s absence and the application to the County Court covering Great Sankey.

My wife and I purchased a leasehold flat in Great Sankey. Conveyancing and Alliance & Leicester mortgage went though with no issue. I have received a letter from someone saying they have taken over the freehold. Attached was a demand for arrears of ground rent dating back to 1993. The conveyancing solicitor in Great Sankey who acted for me is not around.What should I do?

First make enquiries of HMLR to make sure that this person is in fact the new freeholder. You do not need to incur the fees of a Great Sankey conveyancing solicitor to do this as it can be done on-line for less than a fiver. Rest assured that in any event, even if this is the legitimate freeholder, under the Limitation Act 1980 no more than 6 years of rent can be collected.

I am looking at a two apartments in Great Sankey which have in the region of 50 years left on the lease term. should I be concerned?

A lease is a right to use the property for a prescribed time frame. As a lease shortens the saleability of the lease decreases and results in it becoming more expensive to extend the lease. This is why it is generally wise to increase the term of the lease. More often than not it is difficult to sell a property with a short lease because mortgage companies may be reluctant to lend money on such properties. Lease extension can be a difficult process. We recommend you get professional help from a solicitor and surveyor with experience in this arena

Can you provide any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Great Sankey from the perspective of expediting the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Great Sankey can be bypassed where you instruct lawyers the minute your agents start advertising the property and ask them to collate the leasehold documentation needed by the buyers representatives.
• The majority freeholders or managing agents in Great Sankey charge for supplying management packs for a leasehold homes. You or your lawyers should find out the fee that they propose to charge. The management pack can be applied for as soon as you have a buyer, thus reducing delays. The typical amount of time it takes to receive management information is three weeks. It is the most usual cause of frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Great Sankey.
• Some Great Sankey leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. 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. Any bank reference should make it clear that the buyer is 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 solicitors.
• If there is a history of conflict with your freeholder or managing agents it is essential that these are settled prior to the flat being marketed. 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 pay 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 details of the dispute to the buyers, but it is better to present the dispute as over as opposed to unresolved.
• If you hold a share in a the Management Company, you should ensure that you hold the original share certificate. Arranging a duplicate share certificate is often a lengthy process and frustrates many a Great Sankey conveyancing transaction. If a reissued share certificate is needed, you should approach the company director and secretary or managing agents (if applicable) for this at the earliest opportunity.

If all goes to plan we aim to complete the disposal of our £ 500000 flat in Great Sankey next week. The landlords agents has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Landlord’s certificate, building insurance schedule and 3 years statements of service charge. Is the landlord entitled to charge exorbitant fees for a leasehold conveyance in Great Sankey?

For most leasehold sales in Great Sankey conveyancing will involve, questions about the management of a building inevitably needing to be answered directly by the freeholder or its agent, this includes :

• Addressing conveyancing due diligence enquiries
• Where consent is required before sale in Great Sankey
• Supplying insurance information
• Deeds of covenant upon sale
• Registering of the assignment of the change of lessee after a sale

Your lawyer will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for Great Sankey leasehold premises is £350. For Great Sankey 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.

Great Sankey Leasehold Conveyancing - Examples of Questions you should ask before buying