Recently asked questions relating to Chislehurst leasehold conveyancing
I am in need of some leasehold conveyancing in Chislehurst. Before I get started I require certainty as to the remaining lease term.
If the lease is registered - and 99.9% are in Chislehurst - 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.
Having checked my lease I have discovered that there are only Fifty years unexpired on my flat in Chislehurst. I now wish to get lease extension but my freeholder is can not be found. What options are available to me?
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 for permission to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will mean that your lease can be lengthened by the Court. You will be obliged to demonstrate that you or your lawyers have made all reasonable attempts to locate the lessor. In some cases a specialist may be useful to try and locate and prepare a report to be used as proof that the freeholder is indeed missing. It is advisable to get professional help from a conveyancer both on proving the landlord’s disappearance and the application to the County Court overseeing Chislehurst.
Due to complete next month on a studio apartment in Chislehurst. Conveyancing solicitors inform me that they are sending me a report tomorrow. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?
Your report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in Chislehurst should include some of the following:
- You should be sent a copy of the lease
I have just appointed agents to market my ground floor apartment in Chislehurst.Conveyancing lawyers have not yet been instructed but I have just received a yearly maintenance charge invoice – what should I do?
The sensible thing to do is clear 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 managing agents will not acknowledge the buyer unless 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.
I work for a reputable estate agent office in Chislehurst where we see a few flat sales jeopardised as a result of leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have received contradictory information from local Chislehurst conveyancing firms. Could you shed some light as to whether the vendor of a flat can initiate the lease extension process for the buyer?
As long as the seller has been the owner 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 sit tight for 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed before, or simultaneously with completion of the disposal of the property.
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 purchaser.
Following months of correspondence we simply can't agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in Chislehurst. Can we issue an application to the Residential Property Tribunal Service?
in cases where there is a missing freeholder or if there is disagreement about what the lease extension should cost, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal to determine the premium.
An example of a Lease Extension matter before the tribunal for a Chislehurst premises is 70 Andace Park Gardens 133-149 Widmore Road in November 2013. Tribunal determined that the premium payable for the lease extension was £10,052 This case affected 1 flat. The the number of years remaining on the existing lease(s) was 72 years.
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