Having had my offer accepted I require leasehold conveyancing in Halstead. Before I set the wheels in motion I require certainty as to the number of years remaining on the lease.

Assuming the lease is recorded at the land registry - and almost all are in Halstead - then the leasehold title will always include the basic details of the lease, namely the date; the term; and the original parties. From a conveyancing perspective such details then enable any prospective buyer and lender to confirm that any lease they are looking at is the one relevant to that title.For any other purpose, such as confirming how long the term was granted for and calculating what is left, then the register should be sufficient on it's own.

Looking forward to exchange soon on a ground floor flat in Halstead. Conveyancing lawyers assured me that they are sending me a report tomorrow. What should I be looking out for?

The report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in Halstead should include some of the following:

• The unexpired lease term You should be advised as what happens when the lease ends, and aware of the importance of the 80 year mark
• Setting out your rights in relation to the communal areas in the building.By way of example, does the lease permit a right of way over an accessway or hallways?
• You must be told what constitutes a Nuisance in the lease
• Changes to the flat (alterations and additions)
• I don't know whether the lease allows me to alter or improve anything in the flat - you should know whether it applies to all alterations or just structural alteration, and whether consent is required
• What options are open to you if a neighbour breach a clause of their lease?

I own a leasehold flat in Halstead. Conveyancing and The Mortgage Works mortgage organised. I have received a letter from someone claiming to own the freehold. Attached was a ground rent demand for rent dating back to 1995. The conveyancing practitioner in Halstead who acted for me is not around.What should I do?

First contact HMLR to make sure that this person is indeed the registered owner of the freehold reversion. It is not necessary to instruct a Halstead conveyancing lawyer to do this as you can do this on the Land Registry website for less than a fiver. Rest assured that in any event, even if this is the rightful landlord, under the Limitation Act 1980 no more than 6 years of rent can be collected.

I've recently bought a leasehold house in Halstead. Do I have any liability for service charges relating to a period prior to completion of my purchase?

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 be sure 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 work for a busy estate agent office in Halstead where we see a few leasehold sales derailed as a result of leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given conflicting advice from local Halstead conveyancing firms. Please can you shed some light as to whether the owner of a flat can instigate the lease extension formalities for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

As long as the seller has been the owner 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. 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 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.

Halstead Leasehold Conveyancing - A selection of Queries before Purchasing

For most Halstead leaseholds the outlay for major works tend not to be included within service charges, although a few managing agents in Halstead ask leaseholders to pay into a sinking fund created for the specific intention of building a fund for larger repairs or maintenance.