Questions and Answers: Forest Gate leasehold conveyancing
I am in need of some leasehold conveyancing in Forest Gate. Before I set the wheels in motion I would like to find out the unexpired term of the lease.
Assuming the lease is registered - and almost all are in Forest Gate - 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 72 years left on my lease in Forest Gate. I am keen to get lease extension but my freeholder is missing. What should I do?
On the basis that you qualify, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can submit an application to the County Court for for permission to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will mean that your lease can be granted an extra 90 years by the Court. You will be obliged to demonstrate that you have done all that could be expected to track down the lessor. In some cases an enquiry agent would be helpful to try and locate and to produce a report which can be used as proof that the freeholder is indeed missing. It is advisable to get professional help from a conveyancer both on investigating the landlord’s disappearance and the application to the County Court overseeing Forest Gate.
I today plan to offer on a house that seems to meet my requirements, at a reasonable price which is making it more attractive. I have since discovered that the title is leasehold rather than freehold. I would have thought that there are particular concerns buying a leasehold house in Forest Gate. Conveyancing advisers have are about to be instructed. Will they explain the issues?
The majority of houses in Forest Gate are freehold and not leasehold. This is one of the situations where having a local solicitor who is familiar with the area can help the conveyancing process. It is clear that you are buying in Forest Gate in which case you should be shopping around for a Forest Gate conveyancing solicitor and check that they have experience in transacting on leasehold houses. First you will need to check the number of years remaining. As a lessee you will not be at liberty to do whatever you want to the property. The lease comes with conditions such as requiring the landlord’spermission to conduct changes to the property. It may be necessary to pay a service charge towards the maintenance of the estate where the house is part of an estate. Your conveyancer should advise you fully on all the issues.
I am attracted to a couple of apartments in Forest Gate which have in the region of fifty years left on the leases. Do I need to be concerned?
There is no doubt about it. A leasehold flat in Forest Gate is a deteriorating asset as a result of the reducing lease term. The nearer the lease gets to zero years unexpired, the more it adversely affects the value of the property. The majority of purchasers and lenders, leases with less than eighty years become less and less attractive. On a more upbeat note, leaseholders can extend their leases by serving a Section 42 Notice. One stipulation is that they must have owned the premises for two years (unlike a Section 13 notice for purchasing the freehold, when leaseholders can participate from day one of ownership). When successful, they will have the right to an extension of 90 years to the current term and ground rent is effectively reduced to zero. Before moving forward with a purchase of premises with a short lease term remaining you should talk to a solicitor specialising in lease extensions and leasehold enfranchisement. We are are happy to put you in touch with Forest Gate conveyancing experts who will explain the options available to you during an initial telephone conversation free of charge. More often than not it is possible to negotiate informally with the freeholder to extend the lease They may agree to a smaller lump sum and an increase in the ground rent, but to shorter extension terms in return. You need to ensure that any new terms represent good long-term value compared with the standard benefits of the Section 42 Notice and that onerous clauses are not inserted into any redrafting of the lease.
I am employed by a long established estate agency in Forest Gate where we see a number of leasehold sales put at risk as a result of short leases. I have received contradictory information from local Forest Gate conveyancing solicitors. Please can you confirm whether the seller of a flat can initiate the lease extension process 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 kick-start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. The benefit of this is 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 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.
Having spent months of dialogue we are unable to agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in Forest Gate. Can we issue an application to the Residential Property Tribunal Service?
You certainly can. We can put you in touch with a Forest Gate conveyancing firm who can help.
An example of a Freehold Enfranchisement matter before the tribunal for a Forest Gate flat is 52 & 54 Green Street in February 2010. Following a vesting order by the County Court the Tribunal decided that the price that the Applicant for the freehold interest should pay is £20,543 This case related to 2 flats. The the number of years remaining on the existing lease(s) was 78 and 80.
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