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When it comes to leasehold conveyancing in Keighley, you will need to appoint a conveyancing practitioner with leasehold experience. Whether your lender is to be Santander, Yorkshire Building Society or Nationwide make sure you choose a lawyer on their panel. Find a Keighley conveyancing lawyer with our search tool

Sample questions relating to Keighley leasehold conveyancing

I only have Sixty One years remaining on my lease in Keighley. I am keen to extend my lease but my landlord is absent. What options are available to me?

On the basis that you qualify, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the County Court for for permission to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will enable the lease to be granted an extra 90 years by the Court. You will be obliged to prove that you or your lawyers have made all reasonable attempts to locate the freeholder. In some cases a specialist may be helpful to conduct investigations and to produce a report to be used as evidence that the freeholder is indeed missing. It is wise to seek advice from a property lawyer in relation to proving the landlord’s disappearance and the application to the County Court overseeing Keighley.

I am hoping to exchange soon on a leasehold property in Keighley. Conveyancing lawyers assured me that they are sending me a report within the next couple of days. What should I be looking out for?

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

  • You should receive a copy of the lease
  • Defining 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?
  • Does the lease prevent you from subletting the property, or working from home
  • An explanation as to the provision in the lease to pay service charges - with regard to both the building, and the more general rights a leaseholder has
  • You should have a good understanding of the insurance provisions
  • Whether the landlord has obligations to ensure rights of quiet enjoyment over your premises and do you know what it means in practice?
  • The landlord’s obligations to repair and maintain the building. It is important that you know who is responsible for the repair and maintenance of every part of the building For a comprehensive list of information to be contained in your report on your leasehold property in Keighley please ask your solicitor in ahead of your conveyancing in Keighley

    • I am looking at a two flats in Keighley which have approximately forty five years unexpired on the leases. Should I regard a short lease as a deal breaker?

    There are plenty of short leases in Keighley. The lease is a right to use the premises for a period of time. As a lease gets shorter the marketability of the lease reduces and results in it becoming more costly to extend the lease. This is why it is advisable to extend the lease term. More often than not it is difficult to sell a property with a short lease because mortgage companies may be reluctant to lend money on such properties. Lease extension can be a protracted process. We advise that you get professional help from a solicitor and surveyor with experience in this area

    I've recently bought a leasehold property in Keighley. 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. 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).

    Do you have any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Keighley with the intention of speeding up the sale process?

    • A significant proportion of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Keighley can be avoided if you get in touch lawyers as soon as your agents start marketing the property and ask them to collate the leasehold information needed by the purchasers’ solicitors.
    • In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s permission? Have you, for example laid down wooden flooring? Most leases in Keighley state that internal structural alterations or laying down wooden flooring necessitate a licence issued by the Landlord acquiescing to such works. Where you fail to have the consents in place you should not contact the landlord without contacting your conveyancer first.
  • A minority of Keighley leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this is the case, it would be prudent to notify your estate agents to make sure that the purchasers obtain bank and professional references. The bank reference should make it clear that the buyer is financially capable of paying 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 purchasers or their solicitors.
  • If you have had any disputes with your landlord or managing agents it is very important that these are settled before the property is put on the market. The buyers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a property where there is an ongoing dispute. You will have to accept that you will have to discharge any arrears of service charge or settle 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 present the dispute as historic as opposed to ongoing.
  • If you are supposed to have a share in the Management Company, you should ensure that you are holding the original share document. Obtaining a replacement share certificate can be a time consuming formality and delays many a Keighley home move. If a new share is needed, do contact the company director and secretary or managing agents (where relevant) for this as soon as possible.

    • I acquired a basement flat in Keighley, conveyancing was carried out 3 years ago. Can you please calculate a probable premium for a statutory lease extension? Equivalent flats in Keighley with a long lease are worth £178,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £65 yearly. The lease ceases on 21st October 2088

    With 63 years left to run we estimate the price of your lease extension to range between £18,100 and £20,800 plus legals.

    The figure that we have given is a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we are not able to provide a more accurate figure without more detailed due diligence. You should not use this information in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There are no doubt additional concerns that need to be considered and clearly you want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Neither should you take any other action based on this information without first getting professional advice.

    Other Topics

    Lease Extensions in Keighley