Fixed-fee leasehold conveyancing in Eastcote:

Get a Quote

Whether you are buying or selling leasehold flat in Eastcote, our panel of leasehold conveyancing experts will help you move with as little stress as possible. Find a Eastcote conveyancing lawyer with our search tool

Top Five Questions relating to Eastcote leasehold conveyancing

I am on look out for some leasehold conveyancing in Eastcote. Before diving in I require certainty as to the remaining lease term.

Assuming the lease is registered - and most are in Eastcote - then the leasehold title will always include the short particulars 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.

Helen (my wife) and I may need to rent out our Eastcote basement flat for a while due to a new job. We used a Eastcote conveyancing practice in 2004 but they have closed and we did not have the foresight to get any guidance as to whether the lease permits subletting. How do we find out?

Even though your previous Eastcote conveyancing solicitor is no longer available you can review your lease to see if it allows you to sublet the property. The accepted inference is that if the lease is non-specific, subletting is allowed. Quite often there is a prerequisite that you need to obtain permission from your landlord or other appropriate person in advance of subletting. This means you not allowed to sublet in the absence of first obtaining consent. The consent should not be unreasonably withheld. If your lease prohibits you from letting out the property you should ask your landlord if they are willing to waive this restriction.

Looking forward to complete next month on a ground floor flat in Eastcote. Conveyancing solicitors inform me that they are sending me a report on Monday. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?

The report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in Eastcote should include some of the following:

  • The unexpired lease term You should be advised as what happens when the lease ends, and informed of the importance of not letting the lease term falling below eighty years
  • Are you allowed to have a pet in the flat?
  • Whether the lease restricts you from letting out the flat, or having a home office for business
  • You should have a good understanding of the insurance provisions
  • Changes to the flat (alterations and additions)
  • I don't know whether the lease allows me to alter or improve anything in the flat - you should know whether it applies to all alterations or just structural alteration, and whether consent is required
  • What the implications are if you breach a clause of your lease? For details of the information to be included in your report on your leasehold property in Eastcote please ask your lawyer in ahead of your conveyancing in Eastcote

    • I am a negotiator for a long established estate agency in Eastcote where we see a number of flat sales jeopardised due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have received conflicting advice from local Eastcote conveyancing firms. Can you shed some light as to whether the owner of a flat can start the lease extension formalities 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 proposed purchaser need not have to wait 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done prior to, or simultaneously with completion of the disposal of the property.

    Alternatively, it may be possible to extend the lease informally by agreement with the landlord 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.

    Do you have any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Eastcote from the perspective of expediting the sale process?

    • A significant proportion of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Eastcote can be reduced where you instruct lawyers the minute your agents start marketing the property and ask them to put together the leasehold information which will be required by the purchasers’ solicitors.
    • The majority freeholders or managing agents in Eastcote charge for providing management packs for a leasehold property. You or your lawyers should discover 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 reason for frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Eastcote.
  • If you have carried out any alterations to the residence would they have required Landlord’s approval? Have you, for example installed wooden flooring? Most leases in Eastcote state that internal structural changes or laying down wooden flooring require a licence issued by the Landlord approving such works. If you fail to have the approvals in place do not contact the landlord without contacting your conveyancer in the first instance.
  • If you have had any disputes with your freeholder or managing agents it is essential that these are resolved before the property is marketed. The purchasers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a property where there is an ongoing dispute. You may have to bite the bullet and discharge any arrears of service charge or resolve 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 are still duty bound to disclose particulars of the dispute to the purchasers, but it is better to reveal the dispute as over as opposed to unsettled.
  • You may think that you are aware of the number of years remaining on your lease but it would be advisable verify this via your conveyancers. A purchaser's conveyancer will not be happy to advise their client to to exchange contracts if the lease term is less than 80 years. It is therefore important 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.

    • We have reached the end of our tether in seeking a lease extension in Eastcote. Can this matter be resolved via the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal?

    in cases where there is a absentee freeholder or where there is disagreement about what the lease extension should cost, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 it is possible to make an application to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) to make a decision on the sum to be paid.

    An example of a Lease Extension decision for a Eastcote premises is Flat 72 Queens Walk in January 2013. The Tribunals calculated the premium payable to be £22,090. This case related to 1 flat. The the unexpired term as at the valuation date was 53.26 years.

    Other Topics

    Lease Extensions in Eastcote