Fixed-fee leasehold conveyancing in Chadwell Heath:

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Chadwell Heath leasehold conveyancing Example Support Desk Enquiries

Frank (my husband) and I may need to let out our Chadwell Heath garden flat temporarily due to taking a sabbatical. We used a Chadwell Heath conveyancing practice in 2001 but they have since shut and we did not think at the time get any guidance as to whether the lease allows us to sublet. How do we find out?

Notwithstanding that your previous Chadwell Heath conveyancing lawyer is not available you can check your lease to see if it allows you to sublet the apartment. The accepted inference is that if the lease is non-specific, subletting is permitted. There may be a precondition that you are obliged to obtain permission from your landlord or some other party in advance of subletting. This means you not allowed to sublet in the absence of prior permission. Such consent is not allowed to be unreasonably turned down. If the lease prohibits you from letting out the property you should ask your landlord for their consent.

There are only Fifty years unexpired on my lease in Chadwell Heath. I need to get lease extension but my freeholder is absent. What should I do?

On the basis that you qualify, 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 extended by the Court. However, you will be required to prove that you have made all reasonable attempts to find the landlord. On the whole an enquiry agent may be useful to try and locate and to produce a report to be used as proof that the freeholder can not be located. It is advisable to get professional help from a solicitor both on devolving into the landlord’s disappearance and the vesting order request to the County Court overseeing Chadwell Heath.

I work for a busy estate agency in Chadwell Heath where we see a few flat sales jeopardised due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have received contradictory information from local Chadwell Heath conveyancing solicitors. Can you shed some light as to whether the vendor of a flat can initiate the lease extension process for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

Provided that 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. The benefit of this is that the buyer need not have to wait 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed before, or simultaneously with completion of the sale.

Alternatively, it may be possible 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 purchaser.

Can you provide any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Chadwell Heath with the purpose of speeding up the sale process?

  • A significant proportion of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Chadwell Heath can be avoided if you get in touch lawyers the minute you market your property and request that they start to put together the leasehold information needed by the purchasers’ lawyers.
  • Many freeholders or Management Companies in Chadwell Heath levy fees for supplying management packs for a leasehold property. You or your lawyers should enquire as to the fee that they propose to charge. The management pack 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 cause of frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Chadwell Heath.
  • If you have carried out any alterations to the property would they have required Landlord’s consent? Have you, for example installed wooden flooring? Chadwell Heath leases often stipulate that internal structural alterations or installing wooden flooring necessitate a licence from the Landlord approving such alterations. If you fail to have the paperwork in place you should not communicate with the landlord without checking with your conveyancer in the first instance.
  • Some Chadwell Heath leases require Landlord’s consent to the sale and approval of the buyers. If this applies to your lease, it would be prudent to place the estate agents on notice to make sure that the purchasers obtain bank and professional references. Any bank reference should make it clear that the buyer is 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 purchasers or their solicitors.
  • You may think that you are aware of the number of years left on your lease but you should double-check via your lawyers. A buyer’s conveyancer will be unlikely to recommend their client to where the remaining number of years is under 80 years. It is therefore important at an early stage that you identify whether the lease term requires a lease extension. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your property on the market for sale.

    • I own a ground-floor 1950’s flat in Chadwell Heath. In the absence of agreement between myself and the freeholder, can the Leasehold valuation Tribunal determine the amount payable for a lease extension?

    Where there is a absentee landlord or if there is dispute about what the lease extension should cost, under the relevant statutes it is possible to make an application to the LVT to determine the price.

    An example of a Lease Extension matter before the tribunal for a Chadwell Heath flat is 49 Aldborough Road South in July 2012. The Tribunal decided that the premium payable for the grant of the new lease was £13,925 This case affected 1 flat. The the number of years remaining on the existing lease(s) was 61.36 years.

    In relation to leasehold conveyancing in Chadwell Heath what are the most frequent lease problems?

    Leasehold conveyancing in Chadwell Heath is not unique. All leases is drafted differently and legal mistakes in the legal wording can sometimes mean that certain clauses are missing. The following missing provisions could result in a defective lease:

    • A provision to repair to or maintain elements of the building
    • Insurance obligations
    • A provision for the recovery of money spent for the benefit of another party.
    • Maintenance charge proportions which don’t add up to the correct percentage

    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. Lloyds TSB Bank, The Mortgage Works, and Bank of Ireland all have express conveyancing instructions when it comes to what is expected in a lease. If a mortgage lender believes that the lease is problematic they may refuse to provide security, obliging the buyer to pull out.

    Other Topics

    Lease Extensions in Chadwell Heath