My wife and I purchased a leasehold house in Croydon. Conveyancing and Skipton Building Society mortgage are in place. A letter has just been received from someone claiming to own the reversionary interest in the property. It included a demand for arrears of ground rent dating back to 1993. The conveyancing solicitor in Croydon who acted for me is not around.Do I pay?

The first thing you should do is make enquiries of the Land Registry to be sure that this person is in fact the registered owner of the freehold reversion. You do not need to incur the fees of a Croydon conveyancing solicitor to do this as you can do this on the Land Registry website for £3. Rest assured that regardless, even if this is the legitimate landlord, under the Limitation Act 1980 no more than 6 years of rent can be collected.

I am tempted by the attractive purchase price for a two maisonettes in Croydon both have about 50 years left on the leases. Will this present a problem?

A lease is a legal document that entitles you to use the property for a period of time. As the lease gets shorter the saleability of the lease reduces and it becomes more expensive to extend the lease. For this reason it is often a good idea to extend the lease term. Sometimes it is difficult to sell a property with a short lease because mortgage lenders may be unwilling to lend money on properties of this type. Lease extension can be a protracted process. We recommend you get professional assistance from a conveyancer and surveyor with experience in this area

I've recently bought a leasehold flat in Croydon. Do I have any liability for service charges for periods before completion of my purchase?

Where the service charge has already been demanded from the previous lessee 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).

Do you have any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Croydon from the point of view of expediting the sale process?

• Much of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Croydon can be reduced where you appoint lawyers as soon as your agents start marketing the property and request that they start to put together the leasehold information needed by the purchasers’ solicitors.
• The majority freeholders or managing agents in Croydon 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 can be applied for on or before finding a buyer, thus accelerating the process. The typical amount of time it takes to receive management information is three weeks. It is the most frequent cause of frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Croydon.

In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s consent? Have you, for example installed wooden flooring? Croydon leases often stipulate that internal structural alterations or laying down wooden flooring require a licence from the Landlord acquiescing to such changes. Where you dont have the consents in place you should not contact the landlord without contacting your lawyer before hand.

If you have had conflict with your landlord or managing agents it is essential that these are settled before the property is marketed. The buyers and their solicitors will be nervous about purchasing a flat where there is an ongoing dispute. 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 will still have to reveal details of the dispute to the buyers, but it is better to present the dispute as historic as opposed to unsettled.

You believe that you know the number of years left on your lease but it would be advisable verify this by asking your lawyers. A buyer’s conveyancer will not be happy to advise their client to where the lease term is under 80 years. In the circumstances it is essential at an as soon as possible that you identify whether the lease for your property needs extending. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your home on the market for sale.

If all goes to plan we aim to complete our sale of a £275000 flat in Croydon in just under a week. The landlords agents has quoted £324 for Landlord’s certificate, insurance certificate and previous years statements of service charge. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge exorbitant fees for a leasehold conveyance in Croydon?

Croydon conveyancing on leasehold maisonettes usually involves administration charges invoiced by freeholders :

• Completing conveyancing due diligence questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Croydon
• Copies of the building insurance and schedule
• 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 Croydon leasehold property is £350. For Croydon 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 obliged to provide answers.

I have given up trying to reach an agreement for a lease extension in Croydon. Can the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal adjudicate on premiums?

Absolutely. We are happy to put you in touch with a Croydon conveyancing firm who can help.

An example of a Freehold Enfranchisement matter before the tribunal for a Croydon residence is 29 Woodstock Road in April 2014. the Tribunal determined that the premiums to be paid into court in respect of the purchase of the freehold registered at HMLR under Title N0.SY3997 should be £7,217. This case related to 4 flats. The the number of years remaining on the existing lease(s) was 98 years.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Croydon