Fixed-fee leasehold conveyancing in Arkley:

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While any conveyancing solicitor can theoretically deal with your leasehold conveyancing in Arkley, your mortgage provider may not be willing to work with them if the firm are not on their list of approved solicitors for conveyancing

Sample questions relating to Arkley leasehold conveyancing

I only have Fifty years left on my lease in Arkley. I now want to get lease extension but my freeholder is can not be found. What are my options?

If you meet the appropriate requirements, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the County Court for for permission to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will enable the lease to be lengthened by the Court. However, you will be required to prove that you have done all that could be expected to track down the landlord. For most situations an enquiry agent would be helpful to try and locate and to produce an expert document to be used as proof that the landlord is indeed missing. It is wise to seek advice from a conveyancer both on investigating the landlord’s disappearance and the application to the County Court overseeing Arkley.

Due to sign contracts shortly on a studio apartment in Arkley. Conveyancing solicitors inform me that they are sending me a report next week. What should I be looking out for?

The report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in Arkley should include some of the following:

  • You should receive a copy of the lease
  • The length of the lease term You should be advised as what happens when the lease ends, and informed of the importance of the 80 year mark
  • Details of the parties to the lease, for example these could be the leaseholder (you), head lessor, landlord
  • Setting out your rights in relation to common areas in the block.By way of example, does the lease permit a right of way over an accessway or hallways?
  • The landlord’s rights to access the flat you be made aware that your landlord has rights of access and I know how much notice s/he must provide.
  • Responsibility for repairing the window frames
  • What options are open to you if a neighbour breach a clause of their lease? For a comprehensive list of information to be included in your report on your leasehold property in Arkley please ask your lawyer in ahead of your conveyancing in Arkley

    • I am tempted by the attractive purchase price for a two maisonettes in Arkley both have about 50 years remaining on the lease term. Will this present a problem?

    There is no doubt about it. A leasehold flat in Arkley is a deteriorating asset as a result of the reducing lease term. The nearer the lease gets to zero years unexpired, the more it reduces the value of the property. For most buyers and banks, leases with under eighty years become less and less marketable. 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 premises 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 Arkley 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.

    Can you provide any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Arkley with the purpose of speeding up the sale process?

    • A significant proportion of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Arkley can be bypassed if you get in touch lawyers as soon as your agents start advertising the property and ask them to put together the leasehold documentation which will be required by the purchasers’ conveyancers.
    • Many freeholders or managing agents in Arkley charge for providing management packs for a leasehold property. You or your lawyers should discover the fee that they propose to charge. The management information can be applied for on or before finding a buyer, thus reducing delays. The typical amount of time it takes to obtain the necessary information is three weeks. It is the most common cause of delay in leasehold conveyancing in Arkley.
  • If you have carried out any alterations to the residence would they have required Landlord’s consent? In particular have you installed wooden flooring? Most leases in Arkley state that internal structural changes or installing wooden flooring necessitate a licence issued by the Landlord approving such changes. Where you dont have the paperwork to hand you should not communicate with the landlord without checking with your conveyancer in advance.
  • A minority of Arkley leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this applies to your lease, it would be prudent to notify your estate agents to make sure that the purchasers obtain bank and professional references. Any bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are financially capable of paying the yearly 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 service charge figures so that they can pass this information on to the buyers or their lawyers.
  • You may think that you are aware of the number of years left on your lease but it would be wise to double-check by asking your conveyancers. A purchaser's conveyancer will be unlikely to recommend their client to to exchange contracts if the lease term is under 80 years. In the circumstances it is essential at an early stage that you consider whether the lease term for your property needs extending. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your home on the market for sale.

    • I have attempted and failed to negotiate with my landlord for a lease extension without any joy. Can the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal decide on such issues? Can you recommend a Arkley conveyancing firm to act on my behalf?

    Where there is a absentee landlord or where there is dispute about the premium for a lease extension, under the relevant legislation it is possible to make an application to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal to assess the amount due.

    An example of a Lease Extension decision for a Arkley flat is Ground Floor Maisonette 17 Milton Road in January 2014. The Tribunal determined the premium payable by the Applicant to the should be £13,299 This case related to 1 flat. The the unexpired term as at the valuation date was 71.73 years.

    What are the common problems that you come across in leases for Arkley properties?

    There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Arkley. Most leases are individual and drafting errors can sometimes mean that certain provisions are missing. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:

    • Repairing obligations to or maintain parts of the building
    • Insurance obligations
    • Clauses dealing with recovering service charges for expenditure on the building or common parts.
    • Maintenance charge proportions which don’t add up to the correct percentage

    A defective lease will likely cause problems when trying to sell a property as they can affect a potential buyer’s ability to obtain a mortgage. Yorkshire Building Society, Norwich and Peterborough Building Society, and Barclays Direct all have very detailed conveyancing instructions when it comes to what is expected in a lease. If a mortgage lender believes that the lease is problematic they may refuse to grant the mortgage, obliging the purchaser to withdraw.

    Other Topics

    Lease Extensions in Arkley