Experts for Leasehold Conveyancing in Honor Oak

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When it comes to leasehold conveyancing in Honor Oak, you will need to instruct a conveyancing practitioner with leasehold experience. Whether your lender is to be Halifax, Yorkshire Building Society or Bradford & Bingley be sure to find a lawyer on their panel. Find a Honor Oak conveyancing lawyer with our search tool

Questions and Answers: Honor Oak leasehold conveyancing

Having had my offer accepted I require leasehold conveyancing in Honor Oak. Before I get started I require certainty as to the number of years remaining on the lease.

If the lease is registered - and almost all are in Honor Oak - 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.

My partner and I may need to let out our Honor Oak garden flat temporarily due to a career opportunity. We instructed a Honor Oak conveyancing practice in 2002 but they have since shut and we did not have the foresight to get any advice as to whether the lease permits subletting. How do we find out?

Notwithstanding that your last Honor Oak conveyancing solicitor is no longer around you can check your lease to check if it allows you to sublet the premises. The rule is that if the lease is non-specific, subletting is permitted. Quite often there is a prerequisite that you must seek permission via your landlord or some other party before subletting. This means you not allowed to sublet in the absence of prior consent. The consent should not be unreasonably refused ore delayed. If your lease prohibits you from subletting the property you should ask your landlord if they are willing to waive this restriction.

Having checked my lease I have discovered that there are only 72 years left on my lease in Honor Oak. I now want to get lease extension but my landlord is missing. What should I do?

If you meet the appropriate requirements, 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 extended by the magistrate. However, you will be required to prove that you have done all that could be expected to find the landlord. On the whole an enquiry agent may be helpful to conduct investigations and prepare a report to be used as proof that the landlord is indeed missing. It is wise to seek advice from a property lawyer in relation to proving the landlord’s disappearance and the vesting order request to the County Court overseeing Honor Oak.

I work for a busy estate agency in Honor Oak where we have experienced a few flat sales derailed as a result of short leases. I have been given conflicting advice from local Honor Oak conveyancing firms. Could you shed some light as to whether the owner of a flat can initiate the lease extension formalities for the buyer?

Provided that 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. This means that the buyer can avoid having to wait 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 simultaneously with completion of the sale.

An alternative approach is to agree the lease extension with the freeholder 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 buyer.

Can you provide any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Honor Oak with the purpose of expediting the sale process?

  • A significant proportion of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Honor Oak can be bypassed where you appoint lawyers the minute your agents start advertising the property and ask them to put together the leasehold documentation which will be required by the buyers conveyancers.
  • Many landlords or Management Companies in Honor Oak levy fees for supplying management packs for a leasehold premises. You or your lawyers should enquire as to the fee that they propose to charge. The management pack can be applied for on or before finding a buyer, thus accelerating the process. The typical amount of time it takes to receive management information is three weeks. It is the most frequent reason for frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Honor Oak.
  • If you have carried out any alterations to the property would they have required Landlord’s approval? Have you, for example laid down wooden flooring? Most leases in Honor Oak state that internal structural changes or laying down wooden flooring calls for a licence from the Landlord consenting to such alterations. If you dont have the paperwork in place do not communicate with the landlord without checking with your conveyancer first.
  • If you have had conflict with your freeholder or managing agents it is essential that these are settled before the property is put on the market. The buyers and their solicitors will be warry about purchasing a property where a dispute is unsettled. You may have to bite the bullet 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 prior to 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 present the dispute as over rather than unsettled.
  • You believe that you know the number of years remaining on your lease but it would be wise to verify this via your lawyers. A buyer’s conveyancer will be unlikely to recommend their client to to exchange contracts if the lease term is under 80 years. It is therefore essential at an as soon as possible that you identify whether the lease for your property needs extending. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your home on the market for sale.

    • Following months of negotiations we cannot agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in Honor Oak. Does the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal have jurisdiction to calculate the appropriate figures?

    Where there is a missing landlord or where there is dispute about the premium for a lease extension, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal to make a decision on the sum to be paid.

    An example of a Lease Extension case for a Honor Oak flat is Flat 1 40-42 Ewelme Road in August 2012. the Tribunal assessed the premium for the lease extension in the sum of £11,800 This case related to 1 flat. The the unexpired residue of the current lease was 61.81 years.

    Other Topics

    Lease Extensions in Honor Oak