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Recently asked questions relating to Lake District leasehold conveyancing

Having had my offer accepted I require leasehold conveyancing in Lake District. Before diving in I require certainty as to the number of years remaining on the lease.

If the lease is registered - and 99.9% are in Lake District - then the leasehold title will always include the basic details of the lease, namely the date; the term; and the original parties. From a conveyancing perspective such details then enable any prospective buyer and lender to confirm that any lease they are looking at is the one relevant to that title.For any other purpose, such as confirming how long the term was granted for and calculating what is left, then the register should be sufficient on it's own.

There are only Fifty years left on my flat in Lake District. I now wish to extend my lease but my freeholder is missing. What options are available to me?

On the basis that you qualify, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can submit an application 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 magistrate. However, you will be required to prove that you or your lawyers have made all reasonable attempts to locate the landlord. For most situations a specialist should be helpful to try and locate and prepare a report to be used as proof that the landlord can not be located. It is wise to seek advice from a property lawyer both on devolving into the landlord’s disappearance and the application to the County Court overseeing Lake District.

I've recently bought a leasehold house in Lake District. Do I have any liability for service charges for periods before completion of my purchase?

In a situation 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. 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 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).

I work for a long established estate agent office in Lake District where we have experienced a number of leasehold sales put at risk due to short leases. I have received inconsistent advice from local Lake District conveyancing firms. Can you clarify whether the owner of a flat can commence 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. This means that the buyer need not have to wait 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done before, or at the same time as completion of the sale.

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 purchaser.

Can you provide any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Lake District with the purpose of saving time on the sale process?

  • A significant proportion of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Lake District can be reduced if you appoint lawyers as soon as you market your property and ask them to put together the leasehold information needed by the buyers lawyers.
  • Many freeholders or Management Companies in Lake District charge for supplying management packs for a leasehold premises. You or your lawyers should discover the actual amount of the charges. The management information can be applied for as soon as you have a buyer, thus reducing delays. The average time it takes to obtain the necessary information is three weeks. It is the most common cause of delay in leasehold conveyancing in Lake District.
  • In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s consent? Have you, for example installed wooden flooring? Most leases in Lake District state that internal structural alterations or addition of wooden flooring necessitate a licence issued by the Landlord consenting to such works. If you dont have the paperwork to hand you should not contact the landlord without contacting your conveyancer in the first instance.
  • Some Lake District leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this is the case, you should place the estate agents on notice to make sure that the purchasers put in hand financial (bank) and professional references. Any bank reference should make it clear that the buyer is 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 lawyers.
  • If there is a history of conflict with your landlord or managing agents it is essential that these are resolved prior to the flat being put on the market. The buyers and their solicitors will be warry about purchasing a property where a dispute is unresolved. You may need to swallow your pride and pay any arrears of service charge or settle the dispute prior to completion of the sale. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled prior to the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You are still duty bound to disclose details of the dispute to the purchasers, but it is clearly preferable to reveal the dispute as over as opposed to ongoing.

    • Lake District Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - A selection of Questions you should consider Prior to Purchasing

      The prefered form of lease arrangement is a share of the freehold. In this situation the lessees have being in charge if their destiny and although a managing agent is often retained where it is larger than a house conversion, the managing agent retained by the leaseholders. Make sure you investigate if there is anything that is prohibited in the lease. By way of example it is fairly common in Lake District leases that pets are not allowed in in a block in Lake District. If you like the flatin Lake District yet your dog can’t live with you then you will be faced difficult determination. The majority of Lake District leasehold properties will have a service bill for the upkeep of the building set by the freeholder. Where you purchase the property you will have to meet this amount, usually quarterly accross the year. This may vary from two or three hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for blocks with lifts and large communal grounds. There will also be a rentcharge to be met annual, normally this is not a significant amount, say about £50-£100 but you should to enquire as sometimes it could be many hundreds of pounds.

    Other Topics

    Lease Extensions in Lake District