Top Five Questions relating to Kentish Town leasehold conveyancing
I am in need of some leasehold conveyancing in Kentish Town. Before I get started I want to be sure as to the remaining lease term.
If the lease is recorded at the land registry - and almost all are in Kentish Town - 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 husband and I may need to rent out our Kentish Town garden flat temporarily due to taking a sabbatical. We used a Kentish Town conveyancing practice in 2003 but they have since shut 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?
A small minority of properties in Kentish Town do contain a provision to say that subletting is only permitted with prior consent from the landlord. The landlord is not entitled to unreasonably withhold but, in such cases, they would need to review references. Experience dictates that problems are usually caused by unsatisfactory tenants rather than owner-occupiers and for that reason you can expect the freeholder to take up the references and consider them carefully before granting permission.
I only have 72 years unexpired on my lease in Kentish Town. I am keen to get lease extension but my landlord is missing. What options are available to me?
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 extended by the Court. However, you will be required to prove that you have done all that could be expected to locate the lessor. On the whole a specialist should be helpful to try and locate and to produce an expert document which can be accepted by the court as proof that the landlord is indeed missing. It is advisable to get professional help from a solicitor in relation to devolving into the landlord’s disappearance and the application to the County Court covering Kentish Town.
I am tempted by the attractive purchase price for a couple of flats in Kentish Town which have in the region of fifty years left on the leases. Do I need to be concerned?
A lease is a legal document that entitles you to use the property for a prescribed time frame. As the lease gets shorter the value of the lease deteriorate and results in it becoming more expensive to acquire a lease extension. This is why it is often a good idea to increase the term of the lease. More often than not it is difficult to sell a property with a short lease as mortgage lenders may be unwilling to lend money on properties of this type. Lease enfranchisement can be a protracted process. We advise that you seek professional assistance from a solicitor and surveyor with experience in this area
I am employed by a long established estate agency in Kentish Town where we have experienced a few leasehold sales put at risk due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given conflicting advice from local Kentish Town conveyancing firms. Could you confirm whether the owner of a flat can instigate the lease extension process 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. The benefit of this is that the buyer can avoid having to wait 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done prior to, or at the same time as 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 buyer.
I am the leaseholder of a garden flat in Kentish Town. In the absence of agreement between myself and the landlord, can the Leasehold valuation Tribunal determine the premium payable for the purchase of the freehold?
Absolutely. We are happy to put you in touch with a Kentish Town conveyancing firm who can help.
An example of a Lease Extension decision for a Kentish Town premises is Flat 2 27 Mackeson Road in December 2012. The Tribunal assessed the value of the lease extension premium at £35,435 and rounded the figure to £35,500 This case affected 1 flat. The the number of years remaining on the existing lease(s) was 64.77 years.
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