Fixed-fee leasehold conveyancing in Haddenham:

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Any conveyancing practice can theoretically deal with your leasehold conveyancing in Haddenham, your mortgage provider may unwilling to work with them if the firm are not on their list of approved solicitors for conveyancing

Questions and Answers: Haddenham leasehold conveyancing

There are only 68 years remaining on my lease in Haddenham. I need to extend my lease but my freeholder is can not be found. What should I do?

If you qualify, 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 lengthened by the magistrate. However, you will be required to prove that you or your lawyers have made all reasonable attempts to track down the freeholder. In some cases a specialist would be useful to conduct investigations and to produce an expert document which can be accepted by the court as proof that the landlord is indeed missing. It is advisable to get professional help from a conveyancer both on devolving into the landlord’s absence and the application to the County Court overseeing Haddenham.

Last month I purchased a leasehold house in Haddenham. Do I have any liability for service charges for periods before my ownership?

In a situation where the service charge has already been demanded from the previous owner 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. It is an essential part 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).

Do you have any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Haddenham with the aim of expediting the sale process?

  • A significant proportion of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Haddenham can be avoided where you appoint lawyers as soon as your agents start marketing the property and ask them to put together the leasehold information needed by the purchasers’ solicitors.
  • Many freeholders or Management Companies in Haddenham charge for supplying management packs for a leasehold premises. You or your lawyers should find out the actual amount of the charges. The management pack can be applied for on or before finding a buyer, thus accelerating the process. The average time it takes to receive management information is three weeks. It is the most common cause of delay in leasehold conveyancing in Haddenham.
  • In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s consent? In particular have you installed wooden flooring? Most leases in Haddenham state that internal structural alterations or addition of wooden flooring calls for a licence issued by the Landlord consenting to such works. Should you dont have the paperwork in place you should not communicate with the landlord without checking with your solicitor in the first instance.
  • If there is a history of conflict with your landlord or managing agents it is very important that these are settled prior to the flat being marketed. The purchasers and their solicitors will be nervous about purchasing a property where there is a current dispute. You may need to swallow your pride and pay any arrears of service charge or resolve the dispute prior to the buyers completing the purchase. 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 reveal the dispute as historic rather than unresolved.
  • If you hold a share in a the Management Company, you should ensure that you are holding the original share certificate. Organising a duplicate share certificate is often a time consuming process and delays many a Haddenham home move. Where a duplicate share certificate is needed, you should approach the company officers or managing agents (if applicable) for this at the earliest opportunity.

    • Our conveyancer has advised that he intends to complete and exchange simultaneously on the sale of our £350000 flat in Haddenham in just under a week. The freeholder has quoted £372 for Certificate of Compliance, building insurance schedule and 3 years service charge statements. Is the landlord entitled to charge such fees for a flat conveyance in Haddenham?

    Haddenham conveyancing on leasehold maisonettes more often than not involves the buyer’s solicitor submitting enquiries for the landlord to answer. Although the landlord is under no legal obligation to answer these enquiries most will be willing to assist. They are entitled levy a reasonable administration fee for responding to enquiries or supplying documentation. There is no set fee. The average costs for the information that you are referring to is £350, in some cases it is above £800. The administration charge required by the landlord must be accompanied by a summary of rights and obligations in relation to administration charges, otherwise the invoice is technically not due. In reality you have no option but to pay whatever is requested of you if you want to sell the property.

    Are there frequently found deficiencies that you come across in leases for Haddenham properties?

    There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Haddenham. All leases are unique and drafting errors can result in certain clauses are erroneous. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:

    • Repairing obligations to or maintain parts of the building
    • Insurance obligations
    • Clauses dealing with recovering service charges for expenditure on the building or common parts.
    • Maintenance charge proportions which don’t add up to the correct percentage

    A defective lease will likely cause problems when trying to sell a property as they can affect a potential buyer’s ability to obtain a mortgage. National Westminster Bank, Virgin Money, and TSB all have very detailed requirements when it comes to what is expected in a lease. Where a lender has been advised by their lawyers that the lease is defective they may refuse to provide security, forcing the buyer to pull out.

    I own a garden flat in Haddenham, conveyancing formalities finalised half a dozen years ago. Can you give me give me an indication of the likely cost of a lease extension? Similar flats in Haddenham with over 90 years remaining are worth £253,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £60 charged once a year. The lease terminates on 21st October 2093

    You have 73 years left to run the likely cost is going to span between £12,400 and £14,200 plus legals.

    The suggested premium range that we have given is a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we cannot give you the actual costs in the absence of comprehensive due diligence. Do not use the figures in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There may be additional concerns that need to be taken into account and clearly you want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Neither should you move forward placing reliance on this information before seeking the advice of a professional.

    Other Topics

    Lease Extensions in Haddenham