My husband and I may need to let out our Hyde Park 1st floor flat for a while due to a new job. We used a Hyde Park conveyancing practice in 2003 but they have closed and we did not have the foresight to get any advice as to whether the lease prohibits the subletting of the flat. How do we find out?

Notwithstanding that your last Hyde Park conveyancing lawyer is no longer around you can check your lease to check if you are permitted to let out the premises. The rule is that if the lease is silent, subletting is allowed. There may be a precondition that you need to seek consent via your landlord or some other party prior to subletting. The net result is that you cannot sublet without prior consent. Such consent should not be unreasonably withheld. If the lease does not allow you to sublet you should ask your landlord for their consent.

I own a leasehold flat in Hyde Park. Conveyancing and The Mortgage Works mortgage organised. A letter has just been received from someone saying they have taken over the freehold. Attached was a demand for arrears of ground rent dating back to 1998. The conveyancing solicitor in Hyde Park who acted for me is not around.Do I pay?

The first thing you should do is contact HMLR to make sure that the individual purporting to own the freehold is indeed the registered owner of the freehold reversion. It is not necessary to instruct a Hyde Park conveyancing solicitor to do this as it can be done on-line for £3. Rest assured that regardless, even if this is the legitimate freeholder, under the Limitation Act 1980 the limitation period for recovery of ground rent is six years.

I've recently bought a leasehold house in Hyde Park. 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 lessee and they have not paid you would not usually be personally liable for the arrears. However, your landlord may still be able to take action to forfeit the lease. A critical element 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).

Completion in due on the sale of our £375000 apartment in Hyde Park in just under a week. The managing agents has quoted £324 for Landlord’s certificate, insurance certificate and previous years service charge statements. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge an administration fee for a flat conveyance in Hyde Park?

Hyde Park conveyancing on leasehold maisonettes more often than not necessitates the purchaser’s lawyer sending questions for the landlord to address. Although the landlord is not legally bound to respond to these enquiries the majority will be content to do so. They are at liberty invoice a reasonable charge for answering enquiries or supplying documentation. There is no set fee. The average costs for the paperwork that you are referring to is £350, in some situations it is in excess of £800. The management information fee required by the landlord must be accompanied by a synopsis of entitlements and obligations in relation to administration fees, otherwise the charge is not strictly payable. Reality however dictates that one has no choice but to pay whatever is demanded if you want to sell the property.

In relation to leasehold conveyancing in Hyde Park what are the most frequent lease defects?

There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Hyde Park. All leases are individual and drafting errors can sometimes mean that certain sections are wrong. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:

• Repairing obligations to or maintain elements of the property
• A duty to insure the building
• 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 issues when trying to sell a property as they can affect a potential buyer’s ability to obtain a mortgage. Birmingham Midshires, Skipton Building Society, and Clydesdale all have express conveyancing instructions 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 grant the mortgage, obliging the buyer to pull out.

I own a leasehold flat in Hyde Park, conveyancing having been completed in 2001. Can you let me have an estimate of the premium that my landlord can legally expect in return for granting a renewal of my lease? Corresponding properties in Hyde Park with a long lease are worth £238,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £65 charged once a year. The lease ceases on 21st October 2077

With just 53 years unexpired we estimate the price of your lease extension to span between £36,100 and £41,800 plus costs.

The figure that we have given is a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we are not able to advice on a more accurate figure in the absence of comprehensive investigations. You should not use the figures in tribunal or court proceedings. There may be additional issues that need to be taken into account and you obviously should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Neither should you take any other action placing reliance on this information before getting professional advice.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Hyde Park