Common questions relating to Kirkby Stephen leasehold conveyancing
My husband and I may need to sub-let our Kirkby Stephen garden flat for a while due to a new job. We instructed a Kirkby Stephen conveyancing practice in 2002 but they have since shut and we did not have the foresight to seek any guidance as to whether the lease allows us to sublet. How do we find out?
Notwithstanding that your previous Kirkby Stephen conveyancing lawyer is not available you can review your lease to check if you are permitted to let out the apartment. The accepted inference is that if the lease is non-specific, subletting is permitted. Quite often there is a prerequisite that you are obliged to obtain 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 prohibits you from letting out the property you should ask your landlord for their consent.
My wife and I purchased a leasehold flat in Kirkby Stephen. Conveyancing and Chelsea Building Society mortgage are in place. A letter has just been received from someone claiming to own the reversionary interest in the property. Attached was a demand for arrears of ground rent dating back to 1995. The conveyancing practitioner in Kirkby Stephen who acted for me is not around.What should I do?
The first thing you should do is make enquiries of HMLR to be sure that this person is indeed the new freeholder. It is not necessary to instruct a Kirkby Stephen conveyancing solicitor to do this as you can do this on the Land Registry website for less than a fiver. Rest assured that regardless, even if this is the rightful freeholder, under the Limitation Act 1980 no more than 6 years of rent can be collected.
I've recently bought a leasehold property in Kirkby Stephen. Am I liable to pay service charges for periods before completion of my purchase?
Where the service charge has already been demanded from the previous owner and they have not paid you would not usually be personally liable for the arrears. Strange as it may seem, 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).
I am employed by a reputable estate agency in Kirkby Stephen where we see a number of flat sales jeopardised due to short leases. I have been given conflicting advice from local Kirkby Stephen conveyancing solicitors. Could you clarify whether the seller of a flat can start the lease extension formalities for the purchaser on completion of the sale?
Provided that the seller has been the owner 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. The benefit of this is 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 has to be done before, or simultaneously with completion of the disposal of the property.
An alternative approach is to extend the lease informally by agreement with the landlord 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.
All being well we will complete the sale of our £400000 flat in Kirkby Stephen next Thursday . The freeholder has quoted £408 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 flat conveyance in Kirkby Stephen?
For most leasehold sales in Kirkby Stephen conveyancing will involve, queries regarding the management of a building inevitably needing to be answered directly by the freeholder or its agent, this includes :
- Addressing pre-exchange questions
- Where consent is required before sale in Kirkby Stephen
- Supplying insurance information
- Deeds of covenant upon sale
- Registering of the assignment of the change of lessee after a sale
I acquired a ground floor flat in Kirkby Stephen, conveyancing having been completed in 2003. Can you give me give me an indication of the likely cost of a lease extension? Similar properties in Kirkby Stephen with a long lease are worth £268,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £60 invoiced annually. The lease ceases on 21st October 2076
With 51 years left to run the likely cost is going to be between £33,300 and £38,400 as well as costs.
The suggested premium range that we have given is a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we cannot give you the actual costs without more comprehensive due diligence. Do not use the figures in tribunal or court proceedings. There may be additional issues that need to be taken into account and you obviously want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Please do not take any other action placing reliance on this information without first seeking the advice of a professional.
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