I am on look out for some leasehold conveyancing in Finsbury Park. Before diving in I would like to find out the remaining lease term.

If the lease is registered - and 99.9% are in Finsbury Park - 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.

I am looking at a couple of maisonettes in Finsbury Park both have approximately fifty years left on the leases. Should I regard a short lease as a deal breaker?

There are plenty of short leases in Finsbury Park. The lease is a right to use the property for a prescribed time frame. As the lease gets shorter the marketability of the lease decreases and it becomes more costly to acquire a lease extension. For this reason it is often a good idea to increase the term of the lease. It is often difficult to sell a property with a short lease as mortgage lenders may be unwilling to lend money on properties of this type. Lease extension can be a protracted process. We advise that you get professional assistance from a conveyancer and surveyor with experience in this field

I've recently bought a leasehold property in Finsbury Park. Am I liable to pay service charges for periods before completion of my purchase?

In a situation 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. However, your landlord may still be able to take action to forfeit the lease. It is an essential part of leasehold conveyancing for your conveyancer to ensure 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).

Can you provide any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Finsbury Park from the perspective of speeding up the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Finsbury Park can be bypassed where you instruct lawyers as soon as your agents start marketing the property and request that they start to put together the leasehold information which will be required by the buyers lawyers.
• If you have carried out any alterations to the premises would they have required Landlord’s permission? Have you, for example laid down wooden flooring? Finsbury Park leases often stipulate that internal structural changes or installing wooden flooring necessitate a licence issued by the Landlord acquiescing to such alterations. If you fail to have the approvals to hand do not communicate with the landlord without checking with your lawyer first.

If you have had any disputes with your landlord or managing agents it is essential that these are settled prior to the flat being marketed. The buyers and their solicitors will be concerned about purchasing a property where a dispute is unsettled. You will have to accept that you will have to pay any arrears of service charge or resolve the dispute prior to the buyers completing the purchase. 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 details of the dispute to the buyers, but it is clearly preferable to present the dispute as historic rather than unsettled.

If you are supposed to have a share in the freehold, you should ensure that you are holding the original share document. Organising a replacement share certificate can be a time consuming process and frustrates many a Finsbury Park home move. If a new share certificate is needed, do contact the company director and secretary or managing agents (if relevant) for this as soon as possible.

You believe that you know the number of years left on your lease but you should verify this by asking your lawyers. A purchaser's lawyer will not be happy to advise their client to where the remaining number of years is under 75 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 premises on the market for sale.

Our conveyancer has advised that he intends to complete and exchange simultaneously on the sale of our £225000 flat in Finsbury Park next week. The managing agents has quoted £348 for Landlord’s certificate, insurance certificate and 3 years service charge statements. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge exorbitant fees for a leasehold conveyance in Finsbury Park?

Finsbury Park conveyancing on leasehold flats typically involves administration charges raised by managing agents :

• Completing pre-exchange questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Finsbury Park
• Supplying insurance information
• 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 Finsbury Park leasehold premises is £350. For Finsbury Park 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 the information.

Having spent years of correspondence we cannot agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in Finsbury Park. Does the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal have jurisdiction to calculate the appropriate figures?

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

An example of a Freehold Enfranchisement decision for a Finsbury Park residence is 51 Lorne Road in November 2009. The price Payable as decided by the tribunal for the freehold reversion was £27,000. The valuation follows the order of the County Court made on 3 April 2008 granting a vesting order. This case was in relation to 1 flat. The unexpired lease term was 71 years.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Finsbury Park