Leasehold Conveyancing in Crossness - Get a Quote from the leasehold experts approved by your lender

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Leasehold conveyancing in Crossness is more complex than freehold. Your home move will be smoother where you choose a lawyer with a wealth of experience of leasehold conveyancing in Crossness and throughout next step up in loc. The lawyers we recommend have been approved by your lender so use our search tool to check.

Top Five Questions relating to Crossness leasehold conveyancing

I've recently bought a leasehold flat in Crossness. Do I have any liability for service charges for periods before my ownership?

In a situation where the service charge has already been demanded from the previous owner and they have not paid you would not usually be personally liable for the arrears. Strange as it may seem, your landlord may still be able to take action to forfeit the lease. A critical element of leasehold conveyancing for your conveyancer to be sure to have an up to date clear service charge receipt before completion of your purchase. If you have a mortgage this is likely to be a requirement of your lender.

If you purchase part way through an accounting year you may be liable for charges not yet demanded even if they relate to a period prior to your purchase. In such circumstances your conveyancer would normally arrange for the seller to set aside some money to cover their part of the period (usually called a service charge retention).

I am a negotiator for a long established estate agency in Crossness where we have witnessed a few flat sales derailed as a result of short leases. I have been given contradictory information from local Crossness conveyancing firms. Please can you confirm whether the owner of a flat can initiate the lease extension formalities for the buyer?

Provided that the seller has owned the lease for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to kick-start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. This means that the proposed purchaser need not have to sit tight for 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed before, or at the same time as 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.

Can you offer any advice when it comes to finding a Crossness conveyancing practice to deal with our lease extension?

If you are instructing a solicitor for your lease extension (regardless if they are a Crossness conveyancing firm) it is essential that he or she should be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of conveyancing. We recommend that you make enquires with several firms including non Crossness conveyancing practices before you instructing a firm. Where the conveyancing practice is ALEP accredited then so much the better. Some following of questions could be useful:

  • How familiar is the firm with lease extension legislation?
  • What are the legal fees for lease extension conveyancing?

    • Do you have any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Crossness with the intention of saving time on the sale process?

    • A significant proportion of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Crossness can be avoided where you instruct lawyers the minute you market your property and request that they start to collate the leasehold documentation needed by the purchasers’ solicitors.
    • Many freeholders or Management Companies in Crossness charge for supplying management packs for a leasehold premises. You or your lawyers should enquire as to the fee that they propose to charge. The management pack sought on or before finding a buyer, thus reducing delays. The average time it takes to obtain the necessary information is three weeks. It is the most common reason for frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Crossness.
  • In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s permission? In particular have you laid down wooden flooring? Most leases in Crossness state that internal structural alterations or installing wooden flooring require a licence from the Landlord consenting to such changes. Where you dont have the paperwork to hand you should not communicate with the landlord without contacting your lawyer in advance.
  • A minority of Crossness leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this applies to your lease, it would be prudent to notify your estate agents to make sure that the purchasers obtain financial (bank) and professional references. The bank reference should make it clear that the buyer is 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 purchasers or their solicitors.
  • If there is a history of any disputes with your freeholder or managing agents it is very important that these are settled before the property is marketed. The purchasers and their solicitors will be warry about purchasing a property where there is a current dispute. You may need to swallow your pride 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 ahead of the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You will still have to reveal particulars of the dispute to the purchasers, but it is better to reveal the dispute as historic as opposed to unresolved.

    • Completion in due on our sale of a £375000 maisonette in Crossness next week. The managing agents has quoted £336 for Landlord’s certificate, insurance certificate and 3 years statements of service charge. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge an administration fee for a flat conveyance in Crossness?

    Crossness conveyancing on leasehold flats more often than not requires the buyer’s lawyer sending questions for the landlord to answer. Although the landlord is not legally bound to answer such questions the majority will be content to assist. They may invoice a reasonable administration fee for responding to questions or supplying documentation. There is no upper cap for such fees. The average costs for the paperwork that you are referring to is £350, in some transactions it is in excess of £800. The management information fee required by the landlord must be accompanied by a synopsis of rights and obligations in respect of administration charges, otherwise the charge is technically not due. Reality however dictates that one has no choice but to pay whatever is demanded if you want to sell the property.

    My wife and I have hit a brick wall in seeking a lease extension in Crossness. Can the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal adjudicate on premiums?

    in cases where there is a missing freeholder or if there is disagreement about the premium for a lease extension, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal to calculate the premium.

    An example of a Lease Extension decision for a Crossness premises is Various @ Colombus Square in January 2012. the Tribunal calculated the premiums to be paid for new leases for each of the flats in Mariners Walk to be £3822 and the premium to be paid for the new lease of 2 Knights Court to be £4439. This case related to 13 flats. The unexpired term was 76 years.