Fixed-fee leasehold conveyancing in Hurst Green:

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When it comes to leasehold conveyancing in Hurst Green, you will need to chose a conveyancing lawyer with leasehold experience. Whether your mortgage company is to be Santander, RBS or Bradford & Bingley be sure to find a lawyer on their panel. Feel free to use our search tool

Top Five Questions relating to Hurst Green leasehold conveyancing

Harry (my fiance) and I may need to sub-let our Hurst Green garden flat temporarily due to taking a sabbatical. We used a Hurst Green conveyancing practice in 2001 but they have closed and we did not have the foresight to seek any advice as to whether the lease permits subletting. How do we find out?

Your lease governs the relationship between the freeholder and you the leaseholder; in particular, it will set out if subletting is prohibited, or permitted but only subject to certain caveats. The accepted inference is that if the lease contains no expres ban or restriction, subletting is allowed. The majority of leases in Hurst Green do not prevent subletting altogether – such a provision would adversely affect the market value the flat. In most cases there is a basic requirement that the owner notifies the freeholder, possibly sending a duplicate of the sublease.

I have recently realised that I have 62 years left on my lease in Hurst Green. I need to extend my lease but my freeholder is missing. What should I do?

If you meet the appropriate requirements, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the County Court for an order to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will enable the lease to be lengthened by the Court. However, you will be required to prove that you or your lawyers have done all that could be expected to track down the landlord. On the whole an enquiry agent should be helpful to carry out a search and to produce a report to be used as evidence that the landlord can not be located. It is advisable to get professional help from a conveyancer both on investigating the landlord’s disappearance and the application to the County Court overseeing Hurst Green.

I work for a busy estate agency in Hurst Green where we have experienced a few leasehold sales put at risk due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have received inconsistent advice from local Hurst Green conveyancing solicitors. Please can you shed some light as to whether the owner of a flat can instigate the lease extension formalities for the buyer?

As long as the seller has owned the lease for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to commence the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. The benefit of this is that the proposed purchaser can avoid having to wait 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.

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 buyer.

Do you have any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Hurst Green from the perspective of saving time on the sale process?

  • A significant proportion of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Hurst Green can be avoided if you instruct lawyers the minute you market your property and request that they start to put together the leasehold information needed by the purchasers’ representatives.
  • Many freeholders or Management Companies in Hurst Green levy fees for providing management packs for a leasehold property. You or your lawyers should discover the actual amount of the charges. The management information sought as soon as you have a buyer, thus accelerating the process. The average time it takes to receive management information is three weeks. It is the most usual cause of delay in leasehold conveyancing in Hurst Green.
  • Some Hurst Green leases require Landlord’s consent to the sale and approval of the buyers. If this is the case, you should place the estate agents on notice to make sure that the purchasers obtain bank and professional references. The bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are able to meet the annual 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 actual amount of the service charge so that they can pass this information on to the buyers or their solicitors.
  • If you are supposed to have a share in the Management Company, you should make sure that you hold the original share certificate. Organising a duplicate share certificate is often a lengthy process and delays many a Hurst Green home move. Where a new share certificate is needed, you should approach the company officers or managing agents (where relevant) for this as soon as possible.
  • You believe that you know the number of years left on your lease but it would be wise to verify this by asking your solicitors. A buyer’s conveyancer will not be happy to advise their client to proceed with the purchase of a leasehold property the lease term is under 80 years. It is therefore important at an early stage that you identify whether the lease requires a lease extension. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your property on the market for sale.

    • What makes a Hurst Green lease unmortgageable?

    There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Hurst Green. All leases are individual and legal mistakes in the legal wording can sometimes mean that certain provisions 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 premises
    • A duty to insure the building
    • A provision for the recovery of money spent for the benefit of another party.
    • Service charge per centages that don't add up correctly leaving a shortfall

    You could have a problem when selling your property if you have a defective lease as they can affect a potential buyer’s ability to obtain a mortgage. Birmingham Midshires, The Royal Bank of Scotland, and Godiva Mortgages Ltd 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 does not cover certain provisions they may refuse to provide security, forcing the purchaser to pull out.

    Leasehold Conveyancing in Hurst Green - A selection of Questions you should ask before buying

      Does the lease contain onerous restrictions? Where a Hurst Green lease has fewer than 80 years it will have adverse implications on the salability of the apartment. Check with your bank that they are willing to lend given the lease term. Leases with less than 80 years remaining means that you will probably require a lease extension at some point and it is worth finding out what this will be. For most Hurst Greenlease extensions you would be required to have been the owner of the residence for two years in order to be eligible to carry out a lease extension. Generally speaking the cost for major works tend not to be built into the service charges, albeit that there some managing agents in Hurst Green ask leaseholders to contribute towards a reserve fund created for the specific intention of establishing a fund for larger works.

    Other Topics

    Lease Extensions in Hurst Green