I’m about to sell my ground floor apartment in Burnt Oak.Conveyancing lawyers have not yet been instructed but I have just had a yearly maintenance charge invoice – Do I pay up?

It best that you discharge the service charge 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 management companies 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. Having a clear account will assist your cause and will leave you no worse off financially.

My wife and I purchased a leasehold house in Burnt Oak. Conveyancing and Birmingham Midshires mortgage went though with no issue. A letter has just been received from someone saying they have taken over the freehold. Attached was a demand for arrears of ground rent dating back to 1993. The conveyancing practitioner in Burnt Oak who acted for me is not around.Do I pay?

The first thing you should do is contact the Land Registry to be sure that this person is in fact the registered owner of the freehold reversion. There is no need to incur the fees of a Burnt Oak conveyancing solicitor to do this as you can do this on the Land Registry website for less than a fiver. Rest assured that in any event, even if this is the legitimate landlord, under the Limitation Act 1980 the limitation period for recovery of ground rent is six years.

Can you offer any advice when it comes to choosing a Burnt Oak conveyancing firm to deal with our lease extension?

If you are instructing a property lawyer for your lease extension (regardless if they are a Burnt Oak conveyancing practice) it is imperative that they be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of conveyancing. We recommend that you speak with two or three firms including non Burnt Oak conveyancing practices before you instructing a firm. If the firm is ALEP accredited then that’s a bonus. Some following of questions could be useful:

• How many lease extensions has the firm conducted in Burnt Oak in the last year?
• What are the charges for lease extension conveyancing?

Can you provide any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Burnt Oak from the point of view of saving time on the sale process?

• Much of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Burnt Oak can be avoided where you instruct lawyers as soon as you market your property and ask them to put together the leasehold information which will be required by the buyers lawyers.
• The majority freeholders or managing agents in Burnt Oak levy fees for supplying management packs for a leasehold homes. You or your lawyers should find out the fee that they propose to charge. The management information sought as soon as you have a buyer, thus reducing delays. The typical amount of time it takes to receive management information is three weeks. It is the most usual reason for frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Burnt Oak.
• If you have carried out any alterations to the residence would they have required Landlord’s approval? In particular have you installed wooden flooring? Burnt Oak leases often stipulate that internal structural alterations or laying down wooden flooring calls for a licence from the Landlord consenting to such alterations. Should you fail to have the consents to hand you should not communicate with the landlord without checking with your lawyer in the first instance.
• If there is a history of any disputes with your landlord or managing agents it is very important that these are resolved before the property is put on the market. The buyers and their solicitors will be nervous about purchasing a property where a dispute is unresolved. You may have to bite the bullet and discharge any arrears of service charge or settle the dispute prior to completion of the sale. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled prior to the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You are still duty bound to disclose particulars of the dispute to the purchasers, but it is better to reveal the dispute as over rather than ongoing.
• You may think that you are aware of the number of years remaining on your lease but it would be wise to verify this by asking your conveyancers. A purchaser's conveyancer will be unlikely to recommend their client to where the lease term is less than 75 years. It is therefore important at an as soon as possible that you identify whether the lease term for your property needs extending. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your premises on the market for sale.

Having spent years of dialogue we simply can't agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in Burnt Oak. Does the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal have jurisdiction to calculate the appropriate figures?

Absolutely. We can put you in touch with a Burnt Oak conveyancing firm who can help.

An example of a Lease Extension decision for a Burnt Oak flat is 20 Orchard Court Stonegrove in June 2009. The tribunal decided that a premium of £11,040 should be payable for the new lease This case was in relation to 1 flat. The the unexpired term as at the valuation date was 71.55 years.

What makes a Burnt Oak lease unacceptable for security purposes?

Leasehold conveyancing in Burnt Oak is not unique. Most leases are individual and drafting errors can result in certain clauses are erroneous. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:

• Repairing obligations to or maintain parts of the premises
• Insurance obligations
• 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

You will encounter a problem when selling your property if you have a defective lease primarily because it impacts on the ability to obtain a mortgage on the property. Accord Mortgages Ltd, Bank of Scotland, and Britannia all have express requirements when it comes to what is expected in a lease. If a mortgage lender believes that the lease is defective they may refuse to provide security, obliging the purchaser to withdraw.

Burnt Oak Leasehold Conveyancing - Sample of Questions you should ask before Purchasing

The majority of Burnt Oak leasehold flats will be liable to pay a service charge for maintenance of the building set on behalf of the management company. If you buy the apartment you will have to meet this contribution, usually periodically accross the year. This may be anything from two or three hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for blocks with lifts and large common areas. There will also be a rentcharge for you to pay annual, this is usually not a exorbitant figure, say approximately £50-£100 but you should to enquire it because occasionally it could be surprisingly expensive.