Fixed-fee leasehold conveyancing in Lisvane:

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When it comes to leasehold conveyancing in Lisvane, you will need to instruct a conveyancing lawyer with leasehold experience. Whether your lender is to be Santander, Birmingham Midshires or NatWest be sure to choose a lawyer on their approved list. Find a Lisvane conveyancing lawyer with our search tool

Lisvane leasehold conveyancing Example Support Desk Enquiries

I only have 68 years remaining on my flat in Lisvane. I now want to extend my lease but my freeholder is absent. What options are available to me?

If 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 enable the lease to be extended by the magistrate. However, you will be required to demonstrate that you or your lawyers have done all that could be expected to locate the freeholder. For most situations a specialist would be helpful to try and locate and to produce a report which can be used as proof that the landlord is indeed missing. It is advisable to get professional help from a conveyancer in relation to investigating the landlord’s disappearance and the vesting order request to the County Court covering Lisvane.

Back In 2005, I bought a leasehold flat in Lisvane. Conveyancing and Bank of Scotland mortgage organised. I have received a letter from someone claiming to own the reversionary interest in the property. It included a demand for arrears of ground rent dating back to 1991. The conveyancing practitioner in Lisvane who previously acted has now retired.Do I pay?

The first thing you should do is contact the Land Registry to make sure that the individual purporting to own the freehold is in fact the new freeholder. It is not necessary to instruct a Lisvane conveyancing lawyer to do this as it can be done on-line for £3. You should note that in any event, even if this is the legitimate freeholder, under the Limitation Act 1980 no more than 6 years of rent can be collected.

I am employed by a busy estate agency in Lisvane where we have experienced a number of flat sales derailed due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have received contradictory information from local Lisvane conveyancing solicitors. Please can you shed some light as to whether the owner of a flat can instigate the lease extension process 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 can avoid having to wait 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done prior to, or at the same time as completion of the disposal of the property.

Alternatively, it may be possible 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.

Do you have any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Lisvane with the intention of saving time on the sale process?

  • Much of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Lisvane can be bypassed where you appoint lawyers the minute your agents start advertising the property and ask them to put together the leasehold documentation which will be required by the purchasers’ conveyancers.
  • The majority freeholders or Management Companies in Lisvane charge for providing management packs for a leasehold homes. You or your lawyers should find out the fee that they propose to charge. The management pack sought on or before finding a buyer, thus reducing delays. The typical amount of time it takes to receive management information is three weeks. It is the most frequent reason for frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Lisvane.
  • If you have carried out any alterations to the residence would they have required Landlord’s permission? Have you, for example installed wooden flooring? Most leases in Lisvane state that internal structural alterations or laying down wooden flooring calls for a licence from the Landlord approving such alterations. Should you fail to have the approvals to hand do not contact the landlord without checking with your conveyancer first.
  • If you have had any disputes with your freeholder or managing agents it is essential that these are settled prior to the flat being marketed. The purchasers and their solicitors will be nervous about purchasing a flat where there is an ongoing dispute. You may need to swallow your pride and discharge any arrears of service charge or settle the dispute prior to the buyers completing the purchase. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled ahead of the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You will still have to reveal details of the dispute to the buyers, but it is better to present the dispute as historic as opposed to unsettled.
  • You may think that you are aware of the number of years left on your lease but you should verify this by asking your solicitors. A buyer’s conveyancer will not be happy to advise their client to to exchange contracts if the lease term is below 75 years. In the circumstances it is essential at an early stage that you identify whether the lease term requires a lease extension. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your home on the market for sale.

    • What makes a Lisvane lease unacceptable for security purposes?

    There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Lisvane. All leases are unique and legal mistakes in the legal wording can sometimes mean that certain sections are erroneous. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:

    • A provision to repair to or maintain elements of the premises
    • Insurance obligations
    • A provision for the recovery of money spent for the benefit of another party.
    • Service charge per centages that don't add up correctly leaving a shortfall

    You will have a problem when selling your property if you have a defective lease primarily because it impacts on the ability to obtain a mortgage on the property. Barclays , Skipton Building Society, and Platform Home Loans Ltd all have express conveyancing instructions when it comes to what is expected in a lease. Where a lender has been advised by their lawyers that the lease is defective they may refuse to grant the mortgage, obliging the purchaser to withdraw.

    Lisvane Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - A selection of Questions you should ask Prior to Purchasing

      Does the lease have in excess of 80 years remaining? Many Lisvane leasehold properties will have a service charge for maintenance of the block invoiced on behalf of the management company. Where you buy the flat you will have to meet this charge, usually in instalments during the year. This may differ from two or three hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for buildings with lifts and large common areas. In all probability there will be a rentcharge to be met annual, this is usually not a exorbitant figure, say around £50-£100 but you should to enquire as sometimes it can be many hundreds of pounds. The prefered form of lease arrangement is a share of the freehold. In this scenario the tenants benefit from being in charge if their destiny and notwithstanding that a managing agent is usually retained where it is bigger than a house conversion, the managing agent is directed by the tenants.

    Other Topics

    Lease Extensions in Lisvane