Guaranteed fixed fees for Leasehold Conveyancing in Fitzrovia

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When it comes to leasehold conveyancing in Fitzrovia, you will need to chose a conveyancing practitioner with leasehold experience. Whether your mortgage company is to be Santander, Birmingham Midshires or NatWest be sure to find a lawyer on their approved list. Feel free to use our search tool

Top Five Questions relating to Fitzrovia leasehold conveyancing

I am on look out for some leasehold conveyancing in Fitzrovia. Before I get started I want to be sure as to the remaining lease term.

Assuming the lease is registered - and most are in Fitzrovia - 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 Sixty One years remaining on my flat in Fitzrovia. I need to extend my lease but my freeholder is can not be found. What options are available to me?

If you meet the appropriate requirements, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the County Court for an order to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will enable the lease to be extended by the magistrate. You will be obliged to prove that you have done all that could be expected to track down the lessor. On the whole a specialist may be helpful to carry out a search and to produce a report to be accepted by the court as evidence that the freeholder is indeed missing. It is wise to seek advice from a property lawyer in relation to investigating the landlord’s disappearance and the application to the County Court overseeing Fitzrovia.

I am a negotiator for a reputable estate agency in Fitzrovia where we have witnessed a number of leasehold sales put at risk due to short leases. I have been given contradictory information from local Fitzrovia conveyancing firms. Could you clarify whether the vendor of a flat can initiate the lease extension process for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

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. The benefit of this is that the buyer need not have to sit tight for 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done prior to, or at the same time as completion of the sale.

An alternative approach is 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.

Can you provide any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Fitzrovia from the point of view of saving time on the sale process?

  • A significant proportion of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Fitzrovia can be reduced where you instruct lawyers as soon as you market your property and ask them to put together the leasehold information needed by the buyers lawyers.
  • The majority freeholders or Management Companies in Fitzrovia levy fees for providing management packs for a leasehold homes. You or your lawyers should discover 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 receive management information is three weeks. It is the most frequent reason for delay in leasehold conveyancing in Fitzrovia.
  • In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s permission? In particular have you laid down wooden flooring? Fitzrovia leases often stipulate that internal structural alterations or installing wooden flooring necessitate a licence from the Landlord acquiescing to such works. If you dont have the consents to hand do not contact the landlord without checking with your solicitor in advance.
  • A minority of Fitzrovia leases require Landlord’s consent to the sale and approval of the buyers. If this is the case, it would be prudent to place the estate agents on notice to make sure that the purchasers obtain 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 buyers or their solicitors.
  • You may think that you are aware of the number of years remaining on your lease but you should verify this by asking your conveyancers. A buyer’s conveyancer will not be happy to advise their client to where the remaining number of years is less than 75 years. It is therefore essential at an as soon as possible that you consider whether the lease term for your property needs extending. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your home on the market for sale.

    • We expect to complete the disposal of our £225000 flat in Fitzrovia in seven days. The freeholder has quoted £360 for Certificate of Compliance, building insurance schedule and 3 years service charge statements. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge exorbitant fees for a leasehold conveyance in Fitzrovia?

    Fitzrovia conveyancing on leasehold flats more often than not necessitates the purchaser’s solicitor sending enquiries for the landlord to address. Although the landlord is under no legal obligation to address these enquiries most will be content to do so. They are at liberty levy a reasonable administration fee for responding to enquiries or supplying documentation. There is no upper cap for such fees. The average costs for the information that you are referring to is £350, in some situations it is above £800. The management information fee levied by the landlord must be accompanied by a summary of entitlements and obligations in respect of administration fees, otherwise the charge is technically not due. Reality however dictates that you have no choice but to pay whatever is requested of you should you wish to sell the property.

    Having spent months of negotiations we simply can't agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in Fitzrovia. Can we issue an application to the Residential Property Tribunal Service?

    in cases where there is a absentee freeholder or where there is disagreement about the premium for a lease extension, under the relevant legislation it is possible to make an application to the LVT to judgment on the price.

    An example of a Freehold Enfranchisement case for a Fitzrovia flat is 20 Avonwick Road in July 2013. The Tribunal was dealing with an application under Section 26 of the Leasehold Reform Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 for a determination of the freehold value of the property. It was concluded that the price to be paid was Fifteen Thousand Nine Hundred and Seventy (£15,970) divided as to £8,200 for Flat 20 and £7,770 for Flat 20A This case was in relation to 1 flat. The the number of years remaining on the existing lease(s) was 73.26 years.

    Other Topics

    Lease Extensions in Fitzrovia