Examples of recent questions relating to leasehold conveyancing in Forest Gate
I only have Seventy years unexpired on my flat in Forest Gate. I now want to extend my lease but my freeholder is absent. What are my options?
If 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 magistrate. However, you will be required to demonstrate that you or your lawyers have done all that could be expected to find the lessor. For most situations an enquiry agent may be helpful to carry out a search and prepare an expert document to be used as evidence that the landlord is indeed missing. It is advisable to get professional help from a solicitor in relation to investigating the landlord’s disappearance and the vesting order request to the County Court overseeing Forest Gate.
Estate agents have just been given the go-ahead to market my basement apartment in Forest Gate.Conveyancing lawyers have not yet been instructed but I have just had a half-yearly maintenance charge invoice – what should I do?
It best that you clear the service charge as normal because all ground rent and service charges will be apportioned on completion, so you will be reimbursed by the buyer for the period running from after the completion date to the next payment date. Most managing agents will not acknowledge the buyer unless the service charges have been paid and are up to date so it is important for both buyer and seller for the seller to show that they are up to date. Having a clear account will assist your cause and will leave you no worse off financially.
I own a leasehold flat in Forest Gate. Conveyancing and HSBC Bank mortgage are in place. A letter has just been received from someone claiming to own the freehold. Attached was a demand for arrears of ground rent dating back to 1994. The conveyancing practitioner in Forest Gate who acted for me is not around.Do I pay?
The first thing you should do is contact the Land Registry to make sure that the individual purporting to own the freehold is in fact the new freeholder. It is not necessary to incur the fees of a Forest Gate conveyancing practitioner to do this as you can do this on the Land Registry website for £3. You should note that in any event, even if this is the legitimate landlord, under the Limitation Act 1980 the limitation period for recovery of ground rent is six years.
I am looking at a couple of maisonettes in Forest Gate both have in the region of fifty years left on the leases. Should I regard a short lease as a deal breaker?
There are plenty of short leases in Forest Gate. The lease is a legal document that entitles you to use the property for a prescribed time frame. As the lease gets shorter the marketability of the lease deteriorate and results in it becoming more expensive to extend the lease. This is why it is advisable 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 enfranchisement can be a protracted process. We advise that you get professional assistance from a solicitor and surveyor with experience in this field
Can you offer any advice when it comes to appointing a Forest Gate conveyancing firm to carry out our lease extension conveyancing?
If you are instructing a conveyancer for lease extension works (regardless if they are a Forest Gate conveyancing practice) it is most important that he or she should be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of conveyancing. We recommend that you make enquires with several firms including non Forest Gate conveyancing practices prior to instructing a firm. If the firm is ALEP accredited then so much the better. Some following of questions might be helpful:
- How experienced is the practice with lease extension legislation?
Having spent years of correspondence we cannot 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?
in cases where there is a missing freeholder or if there is dispute about the premium for a lease extension, under the relevant legislation you can apply to the LVT to make a decision on the sum to be paid.
An example of a Freehold Enfranchisement decision 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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