Leasehold Conveyancing in Grove Park - Get a Quote from the leasehold experts approved by your lender

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When it comes to leasehold conveyancing in Grove Park, you will need to chose a conveyancing solicitor with leasehold experience. Whether your lender is to be Lloyds, Yorkshire Building Society or Nationwide make sure you choose a lawyer on their approved list. Find a Grove Park conveyancing lawyer with our search tool

Grove Park leasehold conveyancing Example Support Desk Enquiries

Expecting to exchange soon on a basement flat in Grove Park. Conveyancing solicitors inform me that they will have a report out to me next week. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?

Your report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in Grove Park should include some of the following:

  • The length of the lease term You should be advised as what happens when the lease expires, and informed of the importance of not letting the lease term falling below eighty years
  • Details of the parties to the lease, for example these could be the leaseholder (you), head lessor, freeholder
  • Does the lease prevent you from subletting the property, or working from home
  • Whether your lease has a provision for a reserve fund?
  • You should have a good understanding of the insurance provisions
  • Whether the landlord has obligations to ensure rights of quiet enjoyment over your property and do you know what it means in practice?
  • Responsibility for repairing the window frames For a comprehensive list of information to be contained in your report on your leasehold property in Grove Park please enquire of your lawyer in ahead of your conveyancing in Grove Park

    • I have just appointed agents to market my basement apartment in Grove Park.Conveyancing is yet to be initiated but I have just received a yearly maintenance charge invoice – Do I pay up?

    The sensible thing to do is discharge the invoice 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 management companies will not acknowledge the buyer until 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. This will smooth the conveyancing process.

    I am employed by a reputable estate agent office in Grove Park where we have experienced a number of flat sales jeopardised due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have received conflicting advice from local Grove Park conveyancing firms. Please can you confirm whether the owner of a flat can start the lease extension formalities for the buyer?

    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 proposed purchaser can avoid having to wait 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed prior to, or simultaneously with 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 Grove Park from the point of view of expediting the sale process?

    • Much of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Grove Park can be bypassed where you get in touch lawyers as soon as you market your property and request that they start to collate the leasehold documentation which will be required by the buyers conveyancers.
    • Some Grove Park leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this is the case, you should notify your estate agents to make sure that the purchasers put in hand 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.
  • If you have had conflict with your landlord or managing agents it is very important that these are settled before the property is put on the market. The purchasers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a property where a dispute is unresolved. You may need to swallow your pride and pay any arrears of service charge or settle the dispute prior to completion of the sale. 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 particulars of the dispute to the buyers, but it is clearly preferable to reveal the dispute as over rather than unsettled.
  • If you have the benefit of shareholding in the freehold, you should make sure that you are holding the original share certificate. Organising a new share certificate can be a lengthy process and frustrates many a Grove Park conveyancing transaction. If a new share certificate is needed, do contact the company director and secretary or managing agents (if applicable) 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 conveyancer will not be happy to advise their client to proceed with the purchase of a leasehold property the lease term is below 80 years. It is therefore essential at an early stage that you identify whether the lease requires a lease extension. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your premises on the market for sale.

    • I have tried to negotiate informally with with my landlord to extend my lease without success. Can a leaseholder apply to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal? Can you recommend a Grove Park conveyancing firm to assist?

    Most certainly. We can put you in touch with a Grove Park conveyancing firm who can help.

    An example of a Lease Extension matter before the tribunal for a Grove Park residence is 49 Woodstock Court Burnt Ash Hill in May 2012. the payment of £64,116 by the leaseholder was the premium which the Tribunal found due for the lease extension in this case. This case was in relation to 1 flat. The remaining number of years on the lease was 23.26 years.

    Are there frequently found problems that you witness in leases for Grove Park properties?

    Leasehold conveyancing in Grove Park is not unique. All leases are individual and legal mistakes in the legal wording can result in certain sections are missing. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:

    • A provision to repair to or maintain elements of the premises
    • Insurance obligations
    • A provision for the recovery of money spent for the benefit of another party.
    • Service charge per centages that don't add up correctly leaving a shortfall

    You will have a problem when selling your property if you have a defective lease as they can affect a potential buyer’s ability to obtain a mortgage. Nationwide Building Society, Norwich and Peterborough Building Society, and Platform Home Loans Ltd all have very detailed requirements when it comes to what is expected in a lease. Where a lender has been advised by their lawyers that the lease is problematic they may refuse to grant the mortgage, forcing the purchaser to pull out.

    Other Topics

    Lease Extensions in Grove Park