Frequently asked questions relating to Barnet leasehold conveyancing
I am in need of some leasehold conveyancing in Barnet. Before I get started I would like to find out the unexpired term of the lease.
Assuming the lease is recorded at the land registry - and 99.9% are in Barnet - then the leasehold title will always include the short particulars 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 72 years unexpired on my lease in Barnet. I now want to get lease extension but my landlord is absent. What should I do?
On the basis that you qualify, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can submit an application to the County Court for for permission to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will mean that your lease can be granted an extra 90 years by the Court. However, you will be required to prove that you have made all reasonable attempts to find the freeholder. For most situations an enquiry agent should be useful to carry out a search and prepare an expert document which can be accepted by the court as evidence that the freeholder is indeed missing. It is wise to seek advice from a property lawyer in relation to devolving into the landlord’s disappearance and the application to the County Court overseeing Barnet.
Expecting to complete next month on a basement flat in Barnet. Conveyancing lawyers have said that they will have a report out to me within the next couple of days. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?
Your report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in Barnet should include some of the following:
- You should be sent a copy of the lease
Last month I purchased a leasehold flat in Barnet. Am I liable to pay service charges for periods before completion of my purchase?
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. It is an essential part 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 employed by a reputable estate agency in Barnet where we see a few flat sales put at risk due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given conflicting advice from local Barnet conveyancing firms. Please can you clarify whether the vendor of a flat can commence the lease extension formalities for the purchaser on completion of the sale?
As long as the seller has been the owner for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. The benefit of this is that the proposed purchaser need not have to sit tight for 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 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 purchaser.
Following years of dialogue we cannot agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in Barnet. Can we issue an application to the Residential Property Tribunal Service?
Where there is a absentee landlord or if there is dispute about the premium for a lease extension, under the relevant legislation you can apply to the LVT to judgment on the price.
An example of a Lease Extension matter before the tribunal for a Barnet property is Flat 2 2 Netherfield Road in April 2010. The Tribunale held that premium payable for a 90 year extension to the existing Lease should be £7,705. This case was in relation to 1 flat. The unexpired term was 76 years.
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