Fixed-fee leasehold conveyancing in Shirley:

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Top Five Questions relating to Shirley leasehold conveyancing

There are only 62 years remaining on my flat in Shirley. I need to extend my lease but my freeholder is absent. What are my options?

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 an order to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will enable the lease to be lengthened by the Court. However, you will be required to prove that you or your lawyers have made all reasonable attempts to find the landlord. In some cases a specialist would be useful to carry out a search and to produce a report which can be used as proof that the landlord can not be located. It is wise to seek advice from a solicitor in relation to investigating the landlord’s absence and the vesting order request to the County Court covering Shirley.

Last month I purchased a leasehold house in Shirley. Am I liable to pay service charges for periods before completion of my purchase?

In a situation 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. It is an essential part of leasehold conveyancing for your conveyancer to be sure 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).

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

  • A significant proportion of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Shirley can be bypassed if you get in touch lawyers as soon as your agents start marketing the property and ask them to collate the leasehold documentation which will be required by the buyers conveyancers.
  • A minority of Shirley leases require Landlord’s consent to the sale and approval of the buyers. If this applies to your lease, it would be prudent to place the estate agents on notice to make sure that the purchasers obtain financial (bank) and professional references. Any bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are financially capable of paying the annual service charge and the actual amount of the service charge should be quoted in the bank’s letter. You will therefore need to provide your estate agents with the actual amount of the service charge so that they can pass this information on to the purchasers or their lawyers.
  • If you have had any disputes with your landlord or managing agents it is very important that these are settled before the property is marketed. The buyers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a property where a dispute is unresolved. You will have to accept that you will have to pay 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 buyers, but it is clearly preferable to present the dispute as historic as opposed to unsettled.
  • If you hold a share in a the Management Company, you should make sure that you hold the original share document. Organising a re-issued share certificate is often a lengthy process and slows down many a Shirley home move. If a reissued share is required, you should approach the company officers or managing agents (where relevant) for this sooner rather than later.
  • You may think that you are aware of the number of years left on your lease but you should double-check by asking your conveyancers. A purchaser's lawyer will not be happy to advise their client to proceed with the purchase of a leasehold property the lease term is under 75 years. In the circumstances it is essential at an as soon as possible that you identify whether the lease term for your property needs extending. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your property on the market for sale.

    • All being well we will complete the disposal of our £375000 garden flat in Shirley in seven days. The landlords agents has quoted £408 for Certificate of Compliance, insurance certificate and 3 years service charge statements. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge an administration fee for a flat conveyance in Shirley?

    Shirley conveyancing on leasehold maisonettes usually involves the buyer’s conveyancer sending enquiries for the landlord to answer. Although the landlord is not legally bound to respond to such questions the majority will be willing to assist. They may charge a reasonable charge 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 over three hundred pounds, in some cases it is above £800. The administration charge invoiced by the landlord must be accompanied by a summary of entitlements and obligations in relation to administration fees, otherwise the charge is not strictly payable. Reality however dictates that one has no option but to pay whatever is demanded should you wish to complete the sale of your home.

    Having spent months of negotiations we cannot agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in Shirley. Can we issue an application to the Residential Property Tribunal Service?

    Most certainly. We can put you in touch with a Shirley conveyancing firm who can help.

    An example of a Freehold Enfranchisement matter before the tribunal for a Shirley residence is 29 Woodstock Road in April 2014. the Tribunal determined that the premiums to be paid into court in respect of the purchase of the freehold registered at HMLR under Title N0.SY3997 should be £7,217. This case was in relation to 4 flats. The unexpired term was 98 years.

    In relation to leasehold conveyancing in Shirley what are the most common lease problems?

    Leasehold conveyancing in Shirley is not unique. All leases are unique and legal mistakes in the legal wording can result in certain clauses are missing. The following missing provisions could result in a defective lease:

    • A provision to repair to or maintain elements of the building
    • Insurance obligations
    • Clauses dealing with recovering service charges for expenditure on the building or common parts.
    • Service charge per centages that don't add up correctly leaving a shortfall

    A defective lease can cause problems when trying to sell a property as they can affect a potential buyer’s ability to obtain a mortgage. Barclays , The Royal Bank of Scotland, and TSB all have very detailed conveyancing instructions when it comes to what is expected in a lease. If a mortgage lender believes that the lease is defective they may refuse to grant the mortgage, obliging the purchaser to pull out.