Beckenham leasehold conveyancing: Q and A’s
There are only 72 years left on my flat in Beckenham. I now want to get lease extension but my landlord is absent. What are my options?
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 lengthened by the Court. You will be obliged to demonstrate that you or your lawyers have used your best endeavours to find the landlord. On the whole a specialist should be useful to carry out a search and prepare a report which can be accepted by the court as evidence that the freeholder is indeed missing. It is advisable to get professional help from a conveyancer both on devolving into the landlord’s absence and the vesting order request to the County Court overseeing Beckenham.
Expecting to complete next month on a garden flat in Beckenham. Conveyancing solicitors assured me that they are sending me a report within the next couple of days. What should I be looking out for?
Your report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in Beckenham should include some of the following:
- How long the lease is You should be advised as what happens when the lease expires, and informed of the importance of not letting the lease term falling below eighty years
Estate agents have just been given the go-ahead to market my ground floor apartment in Beckenham.Conveyancing is yet to be initiated but I have just received a quarterly service charge invoice – Do I pay up?
It best that you pay 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.
I work for a busy estate agency in Beckenham where we have witnessed a few leasehold sales jeopardised due to short leases. I have been given contradictory information from local Beckenham conveyancing firms. Could you shed some light as to whether the owner of a flat can initiate 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 start 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 for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done before, or at the same time as completion of the sale.
An alternative approach is 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 buyer.
Despite our best efforts, we have been unsuccessful in trying to purchase the freehold in Beckenham. Can the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal adjudicate on premiums?
if there is a missing freeholder or if there is dispute about what the lease extension should cost, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 it is possible to make an application to the LVT to judgment on the sum to be paid.
An example of a Freehold Enfranchisement matter before the tribunal for a Beckenham flat is 26 Manor Road in July 2010. the Tribunal decided that price to be paid for the freehold was £12,420 This case affected 2 flats. The the unexpired residue of the current lease was 76.75 and 88.83.
Are there common defects that you see in leases for Beckenham properties?
There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Beckenham. All leases is drafted differently and drafting errors can result in certain sections are wrong. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:
- Repairing obligations to or maintain parts of the premises
- A duty to insure the building
- Clauses dealing with recovering service charges for expenditure on the building or common parts.
- Service charge per centages that don't add up correctly leaving a shortfall
A defective lease will likely cause problems when trying to sell a property primarily because it impacts on the ability to obtain a mortgage on the property. Barclays , Norwich and Peterborough Building Society, and Clydesdale all have express conveyancing instructions when it comes to what is expected in a lease. If a mortgage lender believes that the lease is defective they may refuse to grant the mortgage, obliging the purchaser to pull out.
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