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Any conveyancing practice can theoretically handle your leasehold conveyancing in Little Ilford, your mortgage provider may unwilling to work with them if the firm are not on their list of approved solicitors for conveyancing

Sample questions relating to Little Ilford leasehold conveyancing

Due to exchange soon on a basement flat in Little Ilford. Conveyancing solicitors have said that they are sending me a report next week. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?

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

  • The physical extent of the premises. This will be the apartment itself but may include a roof space or basement if applicable.
  • Setting out your legal entitlements in relation to common areas in the block.For example, does the lease permit a right of way over a path or staircase?
  • Does the lease prohibit wood flooring?
  • You need to be told what constitutes a Nuisance in the lease
  • An explanation as to the provision in the lease to pay service charges - with regard to both the building, and the more general rights a leaseholder has
  • Whether the landlord has obligations to ensure rights of quiet enjoyment over your premises and do you know what it means in practice?
  • Responsibility for repairing the window frames For details of the information to be contained in your report on your leasehold property in Little Ilford please ask your solicitor in ahead of your conveyancing in Little Ilford

    • I have just started marketing my ground floor flat in Little Ilford.Conveyancing has not commenced but I have just had a quarterly maintenance charge invoice – what should I do?

    It best that you pay 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. Having a clear account will assist your cause and will leave you no worse off financially.

    Last month I purchased a leasehold flat in Little Ilford. Am I liable to pay service charges for periods before my ownership?

    Where the service charge has already been demanded from the previous lessee and they have not paid you would not usually be personally liable for the arrears. Strange as it may seem, your landlord may still be able to take action to forfeit the lease. A critical element of leasehold conveyancing for your conveyancer to ensure to have an up to date clear service charge receipt before completion of your purchase. If you have a mortgage this is likely to be a requirement of your lender.

    If you purchase part way through an accounting year you may be liable for charges not yet demanded even if they relate to a period prior to your purchase. In such circumstances your conveyancer would normally arrange for the seller to set aside some money to cover their part of the period (usually called a service charge retention).

    Do you have any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Little Ilford from the point of view of saving time on the sale process?

    • Much of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Little Ilford can be bypassed where you appoint lawyers as soon as you market your property and request that they start to put together the leasehold documentation needed by the purchasers’ lawyers.
    • Many freeholders or Management Companies in Little Ilford charge for supplying management packs for a leasehold property. You or your lawyers should enquire as to the actual amount of the charges. The management information can be applied for on or before finding a buyer, thus accelerating the process. The typical amount of time it takes to obtain the necessary information is three weeks. It is the most frequent cause of frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Little Ilford.
  • In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s approval? In particular have you laid down wooden flooring? Little Ilford leases often stipulate that internal structural alterations or addition of wooden flooring calls for a licence from the Landlord approving such changes. Should you dont have the paperwork to hand you should not contact the landlord without checking with your solicitor in advance.
  • If there is a history of any disputes with your freeholder or managing agents it is very important that these are settled prior to the flat being marketed. The buyers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a property where there is a current dispute. You may need to swallow your pride and discharge any arrears of service charge or resolve the dispute prior to the buyers completing the purchase. 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 purchasers, but it is clearly preferable to reveal the dispute as over rather than unresolved.
  • You may think that you are aware of the number of years left on your lease but you should double-check via your solicitors. A buyer’s conveyancer will not be happy to advise their client to where the remaining number of years is below 80 years. It is therefore important at an early stage that you identify whether the lease term requires a lease extension. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your home on the market for sale.

    • After months of dialogue we cannot agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in Little Ilford. Can we issue an application to the Residential Property Tribunal Service?

    if there is a missing freeholder or where there is dispute about what the lease extension should cost, under the relevant legislation it is possible to make an application to the LVT to determine the amount due.

    An example of a Freehold Enfranchisement decision for a Little Ilford flat is 9 Granville Road in June 2014. The tribunal determines the enfranchisement price payable by the applicants for the freehold was £32,548 This case affected 5 flats. The unexpired term was 73.8 years.

    What are the common defects that you see in leases for Little Ilford properties?

    There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Little Ilford. Most leases is drafted differently and drafting errors can sometimes mean that certain sections 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 building
    • A duty to insure the building
    • Clauses dealing with recovering service charges for expenditure on the building or common parts.
    • Maintenance charge proportions which don’t add up to the correct percentage

    You may 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. Halifax, Barnsley Building Society, and Aldermore all have very detailed conveyancing instructions when it comes to what is expected in a lease. If a mortgage lender believes that the lease does not cover certain provisions they may refuse to provide security, obliging the buyer to pull out.

    Other Topics

    Lease Extensions in Little Ilford