Fixed-fee leasehold conveyancing in Oakleigh Park:

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Questions and Answers: Oakleigh Park leasehold conveyancing

My partner and I may need to rent out our Oakleigh Park garden flat for a while due to taking a sabbatical. We instructed a Oakleigh Park conveyancing practice in 2004 but they have closed and we did not have the foresight to seek any advice as to whether the lease permits subletting. How do we find out?

Notwithstanding that your previous Oakleigh Park conveyancing lawyer is not around you can review your lease to check if it allows you to sublet the premises. The accepted inference is that if the lease is silent, subletting is allowed. Quite often there is a prerequisite that you are obliged to seek permission from your landlord or other appropriate person prior to subletting. This means that you cannot sublet in the absence of prior permission. Such consent should not be unreasonably refused ore delayed. If your lease does not allow you to sublet you will need to ask your landlord if they are willing to waive this restriction.

I only have 68 years unexpired on my lease in Oakleigh Park. I am keen to extend my lease but my freeholder is absent. What are my options?

On the basis that you meet the appropriate requirements, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the County Court for for permission to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will mean that your lease can be lengthened by the Court. However, you will be required to prove that you or your lawyers have done all that could be expected to locate the freeholder. In some cases an enquiry agent may be helpful to conduct investigations and prepare an expert document to be used as evidence that the landlord can not be located. It is advisable to get professional help from a conveyancer in relation to proving the landlord’s disappearance and the application to the County Court overseeing Oakleigh Park.

I am employed by a long established estate agent office in Oakleigh Park where we have experienced a few leasehold sales put at risk as a result of short leases. I have been given inconsistent advice from local Oakleigh Park conveyancing solicitors. Please can you confirm whether the vendor of a flat can start 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 proposed purchaser can avoid having to sit tight for 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed before, or simultaneously with completion of the disposal of the property.

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.

Our conveyancer has advised that he intends to complete and exchange simultaneously on the sale of our £475000 maisonette in Oakleigh Park in just under a week. The freeholder has quoted £420 for Certificate of Compliance, insurance certificate and 3 years statements of service charge. Is the landlord entitled to charge exorbitant fees for a flat conveyance in Oakleigh Park?

Oakleigh Park conveyancing on leasehold flats normally involves the purchaser’s lawyer submitting questions for the landlord to answer. Although the landlord is not legally bound to respond to these enquiries the majority will be content to assist. They may levy a reasonable administration fee for responding to enquiries or supplying documentation. There is no upper cap for such fees. The average costs for the paperwork that you are referring to is £350, in some cases it is above £800. The administration charge levied by the landlord must be sent together with a synopsis of entitlements and obligations in respect of administration charges, without which the charge is not strictly payable. Reality however dictates that you have little choice but to pay whatever is demanded should you wish to sell the property.

I am the proprietor of a first floor flat in Oakleigh Park. Given that I can not reach agreement with the landlord, can the Leasehold valuation Tribunal determine the premium due for the purchase of the freehold?

in cases where there is a absentee landlord 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 premium.

An example of a Lease Extension decision for a Oakleigh Park flat is Flat 2 2 Netherfield Road in April 2010. The Tribunale held that premium payable for a 90 year extension to the existing Lease should be £7,705. This case was in relation to 1 flat. The the number of years remaining on the existing lease(s) was 76 years.

What makes a Oakleigh Park lease unacceptable for security purposes?

Leasehold conveyancing in Oakleigh Park is not unique. Most leases are unique and legal mistakes in the legal wording can sometimes mean that certain sections are erroneous. The following missing provisions could result in a defective lease:

  • A provision to repair to or maintain parts of the premises
  • 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

A defective lease will likely cause issues when trying to sell a property primarily because it impacts on the ability to obtain a mortgage on the property. Nationwide Building Society, Bank of Scotland, and Britannia all have express requirements when it comes to what is expected in a lease. Where a lender has been advised by their lawyers that the lease is problematic they may refuse to grant the mortgage, obliging the purchaser to withdraw.