Common questions relating to Little Ilford leasehold conveyancing
I am in need of some leasehold conveyancing in Little Ilford. Before diving in I require certainty as to the number of years remaining on the lease.
Assuming the lease is registered - and 99.9% are in Little Ilford - then the leasehold title will always include the short particulars 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.
Harry (my fiance) and I may need to let out our Little Ilford garden flat for a while due to a new job. We used a Little Ilford conveyancing practice in 2004 but they have closed and we did not have the foresight to get any guidance as to whether the lease allows us to sublet. How do we find out?
The lease governs the relationship between the landlord and you the leaseholder; in particular, it will say if subletting is prohibited, or permitted but only subject to certain conditions. The accepted inference is that if the lease contains no specific ban or restriction, subletting is allowed. Most leases in Little Ilford do not contain strict prohibition on subletting – such a clause would adversely affect the market value the property. Instead, there is usually simply a requirement that the owner notifies the freeholder, possibly supplying a duplicate of the tenancy agreement.
Looking forward to sign contracts shortly on a basement flat in Little Ilford. Conveyancing lawyers 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:
- How long the lease is You should be advised as what happens when the lease expires, and aware of the importance of not letting the lease term falling below eighty years
Last month I purchased a leasehold property in Little Ilford. Do I have any liability for service charges for periods before completion of my purchase?
Where the service charge has already been demanded from the previous owner 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).
I am employed by a long established estate agent office in Little Ilford where we have witnessed a few leasehold sales derailed due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have received contradictory information from local Little Ilford conveyancing firms. Could you clarify 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 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 sit tight for 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed before, or at the same time as completion of the disposal of the property.
Alternatively, it may be possible 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.
Despite our best efforts, we have been unsuccessful in trying to reach an agreement for a lease extension in Little Ilford. Can this matter be resolved via the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal?
Where there is a missing freeholder or if there is disagreement about the premium for a lease extension, under the relevant legislation it is possible to make an application to the LVT to make a decision on the price.
An example of a Freehold Enfranchisement case for a Little Ilford premises 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 the number of years remaining on the existing lease(s) was 73.8 years.
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