Fixed-fee leasehold conveyancing in Burnt Oak:

When it comes to leasehold conveyancing in Burnt Oak, you will need to chose a conveyancing solicitor with leasehold experience. Whether your mortgage company is to be Clydesdale , Yorkshire Building Society or NatWest make sure you find a lawyer on their panel. Find a Burnt Oak conveyancing lawyer with our search tool

Common questions relating to Burnt Oak leasehold conveyancing

I am in need of some leasehold conveyancing in Burnt Oak. Before I get started I want to be sure as to the unexpired term of the lease.

Assuming the lease is registered - and 99.9% are in Burnt Oak - then the leasehold title will always include the basic details 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.

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

If you are instructing a conveyancer for your lease extension (regardless if they are a Burnt Oak conveyancing practice) it is most important that he or she should 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 might be useful:

  • How experienced is the firm with lease extension legislation?
  • What volume of lease extensions have they carried out in Burnt Oak in the last year?

  • Can you provide any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Burnt Oak with the aim of speeding up the sale process?

    • A significant proportion of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Burnt Oak can be bypassed if you instruct lawyers the minute you market your property and ask them to collate the leasehold information needed by the purchasers’ lawyers.
    • If you have carried out any alterations to the premises would they have required Landlord’s approval? In particular have you laid down wooden flooring? Burnt Oak leases often stipulate that internal structural alterations or installing wooden flooring require a licence issued by the Landlord approving such alterations. Where you fail to have the consents to hand you should not contact the landlord without contacting your solicitor in advance.
  • A minority of Burnt Oak leases require Landlord’s consent to the sale and approval of the buyers. If this applies to your lease, you should notify your estate agents to make sure that the purchasers obtain financial (bank) and professional references. The 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 have the benefit of shareholding in the Management Company, you should ensure that you are holding the original share document. Obtaining a new share certificate can be a time consuming formality and delays many a Burnt Oak home move. If a reissued share is necessary, do contact the company officers or managing agents (where applicable) for this sooner rather than later.
  • You may think that you are aware of the number of years left on your lease but you should verify this via your lawyers. A buyer’s lawyer will not be happy to advise their client to proceed with the purchase of a leasehold property the remaining number of years is less than 75 years. In the circumstances it is essential at an early stage that you consider whether the lease term requires a lease extension. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your premises on the market for sale.

  • All being well we will complete the sale of our £250000 garden flat in Burnt Oak next week. The management company has quoted £420 for Certificate of Compliance, building insurance schedule and 3 years service charge statements. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge exorbitant fees for a leasehold conveyance in Burnt Oak?

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

    • Completing conveyancing due diligence questions
    • Where consent is required before sale in Burnt Oak
    • Supplying insurance information
    • Deeds of covenant upon sale
    • Registering of the assignment of the change of lessee after a sale
    Your lawyer will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for Burnt Oak leasehold premises is £350. For Burnt Oak 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 required to provide the information.

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

    in cases where there is a absentee freeholder or if there is disagreement about the premium for a lease extension, under the relevant legislation it is possible to make an application to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal to decide the price.

    An example of a Lease Extension matter before the tribunal for a Burnt Oak premises 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 unexpired lease term was 71.55 years.

    Are there common deficiencies that you encounter in leases for Burnt Oak properties?

    Leasehold conveyancing in Burnt Oak is not unique. All leases is drafted differently and drafting errors can sometimes mean that certain provisions are missing. The following missing provisions could result in a defective lease:

    • Repairing obligations to or maintain elements of the premises
    • A duty to insure the building
    • Clauses dealing with recovering service charges for expenditure on the building or common parts.
    • Maintenance charge proportions which don’t add up to the correct percentage

    A defective lease can cause problems when trying to sell a property primarily because it impacts on the ability to obtain a mortgage on the property. Yorkshire Building Society, Norwich and Peterborough Building Society, and Bank of Ireland all have very detailed conveyancing instructions when it comes to what is expected in a lease. Where a lender has been advised by their lawyers that the lease is problematic they may refuse to provide security, forcing the purchaser to pull out.

    Other Topics

    Lease Extensions in Burnt Oak