My wife and I may need to let out our Hook Norton garden flat for a while due to taking a sabbatical. We instructed a Hook Norton conveyancing firm in 2002 but they have since shut and we did not have the foresight to seek any guidance as to whether the lease prohibits the subletting of the flat. How do we find out?

Notwithstanding that your last Hook Norton conveyancing lawyer is not available you can check your lease to see if it allows you to sublet the apartment. The rule is that if the deeds are silent, subletting is allowed. There may be a precondition that you must obtain consent from your landlord or other appropriate person before subletting. The net result is you not allowed to sublet in the absence of prior consent. Such consent must not not be unreasonably refused ore delayed. If your lease does not allow you to sublet you will need to ask your landlord for their consent.

I am tempted by the attractive purchase price for a couple of flats in Hook Norton both have about fifty years left on the lease term. Will this present a problem?

There is no doubt about it. A leasehold apartment in Hook Norton is a deteriorating asset as a result of the shortening lease. The nearer the lease gets to its expiry date, the more it adversely affects the marketability of the property. For most buyers and lenders, leases with less than eighty years become less and less marketable. On a more positive note, leaseholders can extend their leases by serving a Section 42 Notice. One stipulation is that they must have owned the property for two years (unlike a Section 13 notice for purchasing the freehold, when leaseholders can participate from day one of ownership). When successful, they will have the right to an extension of 90 years to the current term and ground rent is effectively reduced to zero. Before moving forward with a purchase of property with a short lease term remaining you should talk to a solicitor specialising in lease extensions and leasehold enfranchisement. We are are happy to put you in touch with Hook Norton conveyancing experts who will explain the options available to you during an initial telephone conversation free of charge. A more straightforward and quicker method of extending would be to contact your landlord directly and sound him out on the prospect of extending the lease You may find he or she is happy to negotiate informally and willing to consider your offer straight off, without having to involve anyone else. This will save you time and money and it could help you reach a lower price on the lease. You need to ensure that any new terms represent good long-term value compared with the standard benefits of the Section 42 Notice and that onerous clauses are not inserted into any redrafting of the lease.

I work for a reputable estate agent office in Hook Norton where we see a number of leasehold sales jeopardised due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have received contradictory information from local Hook Norton conveyancing firms. Could you shed some light as to whether the vendor of a flat can start 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 kick-start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. This means that the proposed purchaser 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 simultaneously with 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 purchaser.

Do you have any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Hook Norton with the purpose of speeding up the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Hook Norton can be avoided if you instruct lawyers as soon as you market your property and request that they start to put together the leasehold documentation which will be required by the buyers conveyancers.
• The majority landlords or managing agents in Hook Norton charge for providing management packs for a leasehold property. You or your lawyers should find out the actual amount of the charges. The management information sought on or before finding a buyer, thus reducing delays. The average time it takes to receive management information is three weeks. It is the most frequent reason for frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Hook Norton.

If you have carried out any alterations to the property would they have required Landlord’s approval? Have you, for example installed wooden flooring? Hook Norton leases often stipulate that internal structural changes or installing wooden flooring require a licence issued by the Landlord acquiescing to such changes. Where you dont have the paperwork in place you should not contact the landlord without checking with your conveyancer before hand.

If there is a history of any disputes with your landlord or managing agents it is very important that these are settled before the property is marketed. The purchasers and their solicitors will be concerned about purchasing a property where there is an ongoing dispute. You may have to bite the bullet and discharge any arrears of service charge or resolve the dispute prior to completion of the sale. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled ahead of the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You are still duty bound to disclose particulars 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 freehold, you should ensure that you hold the original share document. Arranging a replacement share certificate is often a time consuming formality and frustrates many a Hook Norton home move. If a duplicate share certificate is necessary, do contact the company officers or managing agents (where relevant) for this sooner rather than later.

Completion in due on the disposal of our £450000 flat in Hook Norton on Tuesday in a week. The management company has quoted £312 for Certificate of Compliance, building insurance schedule and 3 years statements of service charge. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge exorbitant fees for a leasehold conveyance in Hook Norton?

Hook Norton conveyancing on leasehold flats ordinarily necessitates administration charges invoiced by managing agents :

• Answering conveyancing due diligence questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Hook Norton
• Copies of the building insurance and schedule
• Deeds of covenant upon sale
• Registering of the assignment of the change of lessee after a sale

Your solicitor will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for Hook Norton leasehold property is £350. For Hook Norton 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.

Hook Norton Leasehold Conveyancing - Sample of Queries before buying

Many Hook Norton leasehold properties will incur a service bill for maintenance of the block invoiced by the landlord. Where you purchase the property you will have to pay this amount, usually periodically during the year. This may vary from several hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for blocks with lifts and large common areas. In all probability there will be a ground rent to be met yearly, normally this is not a large sum, say around £50-£100 but you need to check as occasionally it can be many hundreds of pounds. Can you tell me if there are any major works in the planning that could add a premium to the service fees? What prohibitions exist in the Hook Norton Lease?

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Hook Norton