I only have Seventy years remaining on my lease in Littleborough. I now want to extend my lease but my landlord is missing. What should I do?

On the basis that 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 mean that your lease can be extended by the magistrate. However, you will be required to prove that you or your lawyers have done all that could be expected to find the lessor. On the whole an enquiry agent would be useful to try and locate and prepare a report which can be used as evidence that the landlord can not be located. It is wise to seek advice from a property lawyer both on investigating the landlord’s absence and the application to the County Court overseeing Littleborough.

I am attracted to a couple of flats in Littleborough which have about 50 years unexpired on the lease term. Will this present a problem?

There are no two ways about it. A leasehold apartment in Littleborough is a wasting asset as a result of the shortening lease. The closer the lease gets to zero years unexpired, the more it reduces the marketability of the premises. The majority of buyers and lenders, leases with less than eighty years become less and less marketable. On a more upbeat 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 Littleborough 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 You may find he or she is happy to negotiate informally and willing to consider your offer straight off, without having to involve anyone else. This will save you time and money and it could help you reach a lower price on the lease. You need to ensure that any new 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.

I've recently bought a leasehold property in Littleborough. 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).

Can you provide any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Littleborough from the perspective of saving time on the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Littleborough can be bypassed if you instruct lawyers as soon as you market your property and request that they start to collate the leasehold documentation needed by the buyers lawyers.
• If you have carried out any alterations to the residence would they have required Landlord’s permission? Have you, for example laid down wooden flooring? Littleborough leases often stipulate that internal structural changes or installing wooden flooring calls for a licence from the Landlord acquiescing to such changes. Where you dont have the approvals to hand you should not communicate with the landlord without checking with your conveyancer in the first instance.
• If there is a history of any disputes with your landlord or managing agents it is essential that these are settled before the property is put on the market. The purchasers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a property where a dispute is unsettled. You will have to accept that you will have to discharge any arrears of service charge or resolve 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 particulars of the dispute to the buyers, but it is clearly preferable to reveal the dispute as over rather than unresolved.
• If you have the benefit of shareholding in the freehold, you should ensure that you hold the original share certificate. Organising a re-issued share certificate is often a lengthy formality and slows down many a Littleborough conveyancing transaction. If a duplicate share is required, do contact the company director and secretary or managing agents (if relevant) for this at the earliest opportunity.
• You believe that you know the number of years remaining on your lease but it would be wise to verify this via your conveyancers. A buyer’s conveyancer will be unlikely to recommend their client to where the remaining number of years is less than 75 years. In the circumstances it is important at an early stage that you identify whether the lease for your property needs extending. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your property on the market for sale.

In relation to leasehold conveyancing in Littleborough what are the most common lease defects?

There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Littleborough. Most leases is drafted differently and legal mistakes in the legal wording can result in certain provisions are not included. 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 building
• A duty to insure the building
• 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 may encounter 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 , Chelsea Building Society, and Alliance & Leicester all have very detailed requirements when it comes to what is expected in a lease. If a mortgage lender believes that the lease is problematic they may refuse to provide security, obliging the buyer to withdraw.

I inherited a studio flat in Littleborough, conveyancing having been completed 2003. How much will my lease extension cost? Equivalent properties in Littleborough with over 90 years remaining are worth £201,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £50 invoiced annually. The lease ends on 21st October 2098

You have 72 years unexpired the likely cost is going to span between £8,600 and £9,800 plus professional fees.

The suggested premium range that we have given is a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we cannot give you a more accurate figure without more comprehensive due diligence. You should not use the figures in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There are no doubt additional issues that need to be taken into account and clearly you want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. You should not move forward placing reliance on this information before seeking the advice of a professional.