My wife and I purchased a leasehold flat in Beddington. Conveyancing and HSBC Bank mortgage went though with no issue. A letter has just been received from someone saying they have taken over the reversionary interest in the property. It included a ground rent demand for rent dating back to 1993. The conveyancing solicitor in Beddington who previously acted has long since retired.Any advice?

The first thing you should do is make enquiries of HMLR to be sure that the individual purporting to own the freehold is indeed the new freeholder. You do not need to incur the fees of a Beddington conveyancing practitioner to do this as you can do this on the Land Registry website for a few pound. Rest assured that regardless, even if this is the rightful landlord, under the Limitation Act 1980 no more than 6 years of rent can be collected.

I am tempted by the attractive purchase price for a couple of apartments in Beddington both have in the region of fifty years unexpired on the lease term. Will this present a problem?

There are no two ways about it. A leasehold flat in Beddington is a wasting asset as a result of the shortening lease. The nearer the lease gets to zero years unexpired, the more it adversely affects the value of the premises. For most purchasers and lenders, leases with under 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 Beddington 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 the agreed 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 work for a long established estate agency in Beddington where we see a few leasehold sales jeopardised as a result of short leases. I have been given contradictory information from local Beddington conveyancing firms. Could you shed some light as to whether the owner of a flat can commence the lease extension formalities for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

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 need not have to wait 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done before, or simultaneously with completion of the disposal of the property.

An alternative approach is 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 buyer.

Can you provide any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Beddington with the purpose of expediting the sale process?

• Much of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Beddington can be bypassed where you get in touch lawyers the minute your agents start marketing the property and ask them to collate the leasehold information which will be required by the buyers representatives.
• The majority freeholders or managing agents in Beddington levy fees for supplying management packs for a leasehold property. You or your lawyers should find out the actual amount of the charges. The management information can be applied for on or before finding a buyer, thus accelerating the process. The typical amount of time it takes to receive management information is three weeks. It is the most common reason for frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Beddington.
• If you have carried out any alterations to the property would they have required Landlord’s permission? In particular have you laid down wooden flooring? Most leases in Beddington state that internal structural alterations or installing wooden flooring necessitate a licence from the Landlord acquiescing to such alterations. Should you fail to have the approvals in place you should not communicate with the landlord without contacting your lawyer first.
• A minority of Beddington leases require Landlord’s consent to the sale and approval of the buyers. If this is the case, you should notify your estate agents to make sure that the purchasers put in hand bank and professional references. Any bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are able to meet 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 are supposed to have a share in the freehold, you should make sure that you are holding the original share document. Organising a replacement share certificate can be a lengthy process and slows down many a Beddington conveyancing deal. Where a new share is necessary, do contact the company officers or managing agents (if applicable) for this sooner rather than later.

All being well we will complete the disposal of our £ 475000 garden flat in Beddington in just under a week. The landlords agents has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Landlord’s certificate, building insurance schedule and 3 years service charge statements. Is the landlord entitled to charge exorbitant fees for a leasehold conveyance in Beddington?

For the majority of leasehold sales in Beddington conveyancing will involve, queries regarding the management of a building inevitably needing to be answered directly by the freeholder or its agent, this includes :

• Answering pre-contract questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Beddington
• Supplying insurance information
• Deeds of covenant upon sale
• Registering of the assignment of the change of lessee after a sale

Your conveyancer will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for Beddington leasehold property is £350. For Beddington conveyancing transactions it is customary for the seller to pay for these costs. The landlord or their agents are under no legal obligation to answer such questions most will be willing to do so - albeit often at exorbitant prices where the fees bear little relation to the work involved. Unfortunately there is no law that requires fixed charges for administrative tasks. Neither is there any legal time frame by which they are obliged to supply the information.

Having spent months of correspondence we cannot agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in Beddington. Can we issue an application to the Residential Property Tribunal Service?

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

An example of a Lease Extension matter before the tribunal for a Beddington premises is Ground Floor Flat 14 Lodge Road in October 2013. the tribunal held that the price payable for the acquisition of the extended lease of the property should be £12,590 .00 This case was in relation to 1 flat. The the unexpired residue of the current lease was 69.46 years.

Beddington Leasehold Conveyancing - Examples of Questions you should consider before buying

On the whole the outlay for major works are not included within service charges, albeit that some managing agents in Beddington obliged leaseholders to pay into a reserve fund created for the specific purpose of building a fund for larger works. Its a good idea to discover as much as possible about the managing agents as they will either make life much simpler or problematic. As the proprietor of a leasehold property you will be at the mercy of the managing agents both financially and when it comes to day to day matters such as the cleanliness of the common parts. Ask other tenants if they are happy with their service. On a final note, find out the dates that you are obliged pay the maintenance charge to the managing agents and precisely what you get for your money. Be sure to discover if the the lease includes any onerous restrictions in the lease. By way of example it is reasonably common in Beddington leases that pets are not permitted in in a block in Beddington. If you like the flatin Beddington yet your dog is not allowed to live with you then you will be faced hard choice.