My partner and I may need to let out our Barnsbury ground floor flat for a while due to taking a sabbatical. We instructed a Barnsbury conveyancing firm in 2002 but they have since shut and we did not have the foresight to seek any guidance as to whether the lease permits subletting. How do we find out?

A small minority of properties in Barnsbury do contain a provision to say that subletting is only permitted with prior consent from the landlord. The landlord cannot unreasonably refuse but, in such cases, they would need to see references. Experience suggests that problems are usually caused by unsatisfactory tenants rather than owner-occupiers and for that reason you can expect the freeholder to take up the references and consider them carefully before granting permission.

I have just started marketing my garden flat in Barnsbury.Conveyancing has not commenced but I have just had a half-yearly maintenance charge invoice – should I leave it to the buyer to sort out?

It best that you discharge the invoice as normal because all ground rent and service charges will be apportioned on completion, so you will be reimbursed by the buyer for the period running from after the completion date to the next payment date. Most managing agents will not acknowledge the buyer until the service charges have been paid and are up to date so it is important for both buyer and seller for the seller to show that they are up to date. This will smooth the conveyancing process.

Last month I purchased a leasehold flat in Barnsbury. 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. However, 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 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).

I am a negotiator for a busy estate agent office in Barnsbury where we have witnessed a number of flat sales jeopardised due to short leases. I have been given inconsistent advice from local Barnsbury conveyancing firms. Please can you shed some light as to whether the vendor of a flat can start the lease extension formalities for the buyer?

As long as the seller has been the owner 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. The benefit of this is that the proposed purchaser need not have to sit tight for 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done prior to, or simultaneously with 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 Barnsbury with the aim of speeding up the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Barnsbury can be bypassed if you instruct lawyers as soon as you market your property and ask them to put together the leasehold documentation needed by the purchasers’ conveyancers.
• A minority of Barnsbury leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this applies to your lease, it would be prudent to place the estate agents on notice to make sure that the purchasers put in hand financial (bank) and professional references. The bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are financially capable of paying the annual 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 actual amount of the service charge so that they can pass this information on to the buyers or their lawyers.
• If you have had conflict with your landlord or managing agents it is essential that these are settled before the property is put on the market. The buyers and their solicitors will be warry about purchasing a property where there is a current dispute. You may have to bite the bullet and pay any arrears of service charge or resolve the dispute prior to completion of the sale. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled ahead of 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 historic as opposed to unresolved.
• If you have the benefit of shareholding in the freehold, you should make sure that you hold the original share certificate. Organising a new share certificate can be a time consuming process and frustrates many a Barnsbury conveyancing deal. If a duplicate share is needed, do contact the company officers or managing agents (if relevant) for this sooner rather than later.
• You believe that you know the number of years remaining on your lease but it would be wise to double-check by asking your solicitors. A buyer’s lawyer will not be happy to advise their client to where the lease term is less than 80 years. In the circumstances it is important at an as soon as possible that you identify whether the lease for your property needs extending. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your home on the market for sale.

Having spent years of correspondence we are unable to agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in Barnsbury. Can we issue an application to the Residential Property Tribunal Service?

You certainly can. We are happy to put you in touch with a Barnsbury conveyancing firm who can help.

An example of a Lease Extension case for a Barnsbury property is Flat 120, Clare Court Judd Street in August 2013. the Tribunal held that the premium to be paid for the extension of the lease should be £64,650 This case related to 1 flat. The the unexpired residue of the current lease was 62.79 years.

Barnsbury Leasehold Conveyancing - A selection of Queries Prior to Purchasing

The majority of Barnsbury leasehold properties will have a service charge for the upkeep of the building levied on behalf of the landlord. Where you acquire the apartment you will have to pay this amount, normally in instalments accross the year. This could differ from two or three hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for blocks with lifts and large communal grounds. There will also be a rentcharge to be met yearly, normally this is not a significant amount, say approximately £50-£100 but you should to check as sometimes it could be many hundreds of pounds. How many of the leaseholders are in arrears for their service charge payments?