Having checked my lease I have discovered that there are only 68 years unexpired on my flat in Heacham. I now wish to extend my lease but my freeholder is can not be found. What options are available to me?

If you meet the appropriate requirements, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can submit an application to the County Court for an order to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will mean that your lease can be lengthened by the Court. You will be obliged to demonstrate that you have used your best endeavours to find the landlord. For most situations a specialist may be useful to carry out a search and prepare a report to be used as proof that the freeholder is indeed missing. It is wise to seek advice from a conveyancer in relation to devolving into the landlord’s absence and the vesting order request to the County Court covering Heacham.

I work for a long established estate agency in Heacham where we have witnessed a number of flat sales put at risk as a result of leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given contradictory information from local Heacham conveyancing firms. Could you shed some light as to whether the seller of a flat can initiate the lease extension formalities for the buyer?

Provided that the seller has owned the lease 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. This means that the buyer need not have to sit tight for 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done before, or simultaneously with completion of the sale.

Alternatively, it may be possible 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 purchaser.

Can you provide any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Heacham from the perspective of speeding up the sale process?

• Much of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Heacham can be bypassed if you appoint lawyers the minute you market your property and request that they start to collate the leasehold information needed by the purchasers’ conveyancers.
• If you have carried out any alterations to the premises would they have required Landlord’s approval? Have you, for example installed wooden flooring? Most leases in Heacham state that internal structural changes or addition of wooden flooring require a licence from the Landlord approving such alterations. Where you dont have the approvals in place you should not communicate with the landlord without checking with your solicitor before hand.

Our conveyancer has advised that he intends to complete and exchange simultaneously on our sale of a £500000 garden flat in Heacham on Friday in a week. The freeholder has quoted £420 for Certificate of Compliance, building insurance schedule and 3 years service charge statements. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge such fees for a leasehold conveyance in Heacham?

Heacham conveyancing on leasehold maisonettes normally necessitates the buyer’s lawyer sending questions for the landlord to address. Although the landlord is under no legal obligation to answer these enquiries the majority will be content to assist. They are at liberty charge a reasonable charge for answering enquiries or supplying documentation. There is no upper cap for such fees. The average costs for the information that you are referring to is over three hundred pounds, in some transactions it is above £800. The administration charge required by the landlord must be sent together with a synopsis of entitlements and obligations in respect of administration fees, without which the invoice is not strictly payable. Reality however dictates that one has no choice but to pay whatever is requested of you if you want to complete the sale of your home.

In relation to leasehold conveyancing in Heacham what are the most common lease problems?

Leasehold conveyancing in Heacham is not unique. All leases are unique and legal mistakes in the legal wording can sometimes mean that certain sections are not included. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:

• A provision to repair to or maintain elements of the property
• Insurance obligations
• Clauses dealing with recovering service charges for expenditure on the building or common parts.
• Service charge per centages that don't add up correctly leaving a shortfall

You will have difficulties when selling your property if you have a defective lease primarily because it impacts on the ability to obtain a mortgage on the property. Lloyds TSB Bank, Virgin Money, and Barclays Direct all have express requirements when it comes to what is expected in a lease. Where a lender has been advised by their lawyers that the lease is problematic they may refuse to provide security, forcing the purchaser to pull out.

Leasehold Conveyancing in Heacham - Sample of Queries before Purchasing

Plenty Heacham leasehold properties will incur a service charge for maintenance of the block set by the management company. Should you purchase the apartment you will have to pay this contribution, normally quarterly accross the year. This could vary from a couple of hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for buildings with lifts and large communal grounds. There will also be a ground rent to be met yearly, ordinarily this is not a large amount, say about £25-£75 but you should to enquire as sometimes it could be many hundreds of pounds. How much is the annual maintenance fee and ground rent? This information is useful as a) areas can result in problems in the block as the common areas may begin to deteriorate where maintenance are not paid for b) if the tenants have an issue with the running of the building you will need to have all the details

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Heacham