Having had my offer accepted I require leasehold conveyancing in Linton. Before diving in I want to be sure as to the number of years remaining on the lease.

Assuming the lease is registered - and most are in Linton - 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 Sixty One years unexpired on my lease in Linton. I need to get lease extension but my landlord is can not be found. What are my options?

On the basis that you meet the appropriate requirements, 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 mean that your lease can be lengthened by the magistrate. However, you will be required to prove that you have made all reasonable attempts to track down the landlord. For most situations an enquiry agent should be helpful to conduct investigations and prepare a report to be accepted by the court as proof that the landlord can not be located. It is wise to seek advice from a solicitor in relation to devolving into the landlord’s disappearance and the vesting order request to the County Court covering Linton.

Due to exchange soon on a ground floor flat in Linton. Conveyancing lawyers inform me that they will have a report out to me next week. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?

Your report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in Linton should include some of the following:

• You should be sent a copy of the lease

I am looking at a couple of maisonettes in Linton which have in the region of forty five years unexpired on the lease term. Should I regard a short lease as a deal breaker?

There are no two ways about it. A leasehold apartment in Linton is a deteriorating asset as a result of the shortening lease. The closer the lease gets to zero years unexpired, the more it adversely affects the salability of the property. The majority of buyers and banks, leases with less than eighty years become less and less attractive. On a more positive note, leaseholders can extend their leases by serving a Section 42 Notice. One stipulation is that they must have owned the property for two years (unlike a Section 13 notice for purchasing the freehold, when leaseholders can participate from day one of ownership). When successful, they will have the right to an extension of 90 years to the current term and ground rent is effectively reduced to zero. Before moving forward with a purchase of premises with a short lease term remaining you should talk to a solicitor specialising in lease extensions and leasehold enfranchisement. We are are happy to put you in touch with Linton conveyancing experts who will explain the options available to you during an initial telephone conversation free of charge. A more straightforward and quicker method of extending would be to contact your landlord directly and sound him out on the prospect of extending the lease They may agree to a smaller lump sum and an increase in the ground rent, but to shorter extension terms in return. You need to ensure that the agreed terms represent good long-term value compared with the standard benefits of the Section 42 Notice and that onerous clauses are not inserted into any redrafting of the lease.

Completion in due on the sale of our £350000 garden flat in Linton on Wednesday in a week. The freeholder has quoted £360 for Landlord’s certificate, building insurance schedule and previous years service charge statements. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge an administration fee for a leasehold conveyance in Linton?

Linton conveyancing on leasehold flats more often than not requires the purchaser’s conveyancer sending questions for the landlord to answer. Although the landlord is not legally bound to address these enquiries most 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 paperwork that you are referring to is over three hundred pounds, in some transactions it is in excess of £800. The management information fee levied by the landlord must be accompanied by a summary of rights and obligations in relation to administration fees, without which the charge is not strictly payable. In reality you have no choice but to pay whatever is requested of you if you want to exchange contracts with the buyer.

Leasehold Conveyancing in Linton - Examples of Queries before Purchasing

How many of the leaseholders are in arrears for their maintenance charge payments? The prefered form of lease structure is where the freehold interest is owned by the leaseholders. In this scenario the lessees benefit from control and even though a managing agent is frequently employed if it is bigger than a house conversion, the managing agent retained by the leaseholders. This information is helpful as a) areas can cause problems in the building as the communal areas may start to deteriorate if services remain unpaid b) if the tenants have a dispute with the managing agents you will wish to know about it

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Linton