I have recently realised that I have Fifty years left on my lease in Linslade. I now want to get lease extension but my landlord is absent. What are my options?

If you qualify, 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 extended by the Court. However, you will be required to prove that you have done all that could be expected to find the lessor. In some cases an enquiry agent should be useful to conduct investigations and prepare an expert document which can be used as evidence that the landlord can not be located. It is advisable to get professional help from a property lawyer in relation to investigating the landlord’s disappearance and the vesting order request to the County Court covering Linslade.

I am tempted by the attractive purchase price for a couple of apartments in Linslade which have about 50 years unexpired on the leases. Will this present a problem?

There are plenty of short leases in Linslade. The lease is a legal document that entitles you to use the premises for a prescribed time frame. As a lease gets shorter the value of the lease reduces and it becomes more expensive to acquire a lease extension. This is why it is advisable to extend the lease term. It is often difficult to sell a property with a short lease because mortgage companies less inclined to grant a loan on properties of this type. Lease extension can be a difficult process. We recommend you seek professional assistance from a solicitor and surveyor with experience in this area

Last month I purchased a leasehold house in Linslade. 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 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 a negotiator for a busy estate agency in Linslade where we see a few flat sales put at risk as a result of short leases. I have been given conflicting advice from local Linslade conveyancing solicitors. Can you shed some light as to whether the owner of a flat can instigate the lease extension formalities for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

Provided that the seller has owned the lease for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to kick-start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. This means 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 prior to, or simultaneously with 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 buyer.

If all goes to plan we aim to complete the sale of our £400000 garden flat in Linslade next Monday . The management company has quoted £348 for Landlord’s certificate, insurance certificate and 3 years statements of service charge. Is the landlord entitled to charge exorbitant fees for a flat conveyance in Linslade?

Linslade conveyancing on leasehold maisonettes normally necessitates the purchaser’s lawyer sending questions for the landlord to address. Although the landlord is not legally bound to address such questions the majority will be willing to do so. They are at liberty invoice a reasonable administration fee for responding to questions or supplying documentation. There is no upper cap for such fees. The average costs for the information that you are referring to is over three hundred pounds, in some transactions it exceeds £800. The management information fee levied by the landlord must be accompanied by a summary of rights and obligations in respect of administration charges, otherwise the charge is technically not due. Reality however dictates that you have little choice but to pay whatever is demanded if you want to exchange contracts with the buyer.

Leasehold Conveyancing in Linslade - Examples of Queries Prior to buying

What restrictions are there in the Linslade Lease? Plenty Linslade leasehold properties will be liable to pay a service charge for maintenance of the building levied by the freeholder. Should you acquire the property you will have to meet this contribution, normally in instalments accross the year. This could be anything from several hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for blocks with lifts and large communal areas. In all probability there will be a rentcharge to be met annual, this is usually not a exorbitant sum, say around £25-£75 but you need to enquire as sometimes it could be prohibitively expensive. Please note if it is fewer than eighty years it will impact the value of the apartment. Check with your bank that they are happy with residual term of the lease. A short lease means that you will almost definitely require a lease extension at some point and you need to have some idea of what this will be. Remember, in most cases you would need to own the residence for a couple of years in order to be entitled to extend the lease.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Linslade