Sample questions relating to Holland Park leasehold conveyancing
My wife and I may need to let out our Holland Park garden flat for a while due to a new job. We used a Holland Park conveyancing practice in 2002 but they have closed and we did not have the foresight to get any advice as to whether the lease allows us to sublet. How do we find out?
Notwithstanding that your previous Holland Park conveyancing solicitor is no longer available you can review your lease to see if it allows you to sublet the property. The accepted inference is that if the deeds are non-specific, subletting is permitted. Quite often there is a prerequisite that you are obliged to seek permission via your landlord or other appropriate person before subletting. This means you not allowed to sublet without first obtaining permission. The consent should not be unreasonably turned down. If the lease does not allow you to sublet you will need to ask your landlord if they are willing to waive this restriction.
Due to exchange soon on a garden flat in Holland Park. Conveyancing solicitors have said that they will have a report out to me tomorrow. What should I be looking out for?
The report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in Holland Park should include some of the following:
- You should be sent a copy of the lease
I’m about to sell my 2 bed flat in Holland Park.Conveyancing lawyers have not yet been instructed but I have just had a half-yearly service charge demand – Do I pay up?
The sensible thing to do is clear 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 work for a reputable estate agency in Holland Park where we have witnessed a few flat sales jeopardised due to short leases. I have been given contradictory information from local Holland Park conveyancing firms. Can you shed some light as to whether the owner of a flat can start the lease extension formalities for the purchaser on completion of the sale?
As long as the seller has owned the lease for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to 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 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.
We have reached the end of our tether in negotiating a lease extension in Holland Park. Can this matter be resolved via the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal?
Where there is a absentee landlord or if there is dispute about the premium for a lease extension, under the relevant statutes you can apply to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) to decide the price.
An example of a Lease Extension case for a Holland Park property is 93 Oakwood Court in June 2010. the LVT determined that the premium to be paid for the new lease was £492,083, This case related to 1 flat. The the unexpired residue of the current lease was 37.79 years.
What makes a Holland Park lease problematic?
There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Holland Park. Most leases is drafted differently and legal mistakes in the legal wording can result in certain clauses are erroneous. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:
- Repairing obligations to or maintain parts of the premises
- Insurance obligations
- Clauses dealing with recovering service charges for expenditure on the building or common parts.
- Service charge per centages that don't add up correctly leaving a shortfall
A defective lease can cause problems when trying to sell a property primarily because it impacts on the ability to obtain a mortgage on the property. Barclays , Virgin Money, 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 defective they may refuse to grant the mortgage, obliging the purchaser to withdraw.
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