Fixed-fee leasehold conveyancing in St Johns:

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St Johns leasehold conveyancing: Q and A’s

I am tempted by the attractive purchase price for a two apartments in St Johns both have in the region of fifty years left on the lease term. Do I need to be concerned?

There are plenty of short leases in St Johns. The lease is a right to use the property for a period of time. As a lease shortens the saleability of the lease deteriorate and it becomes more expensive to extend the lease. This is why it is generally wise to increase the term of the lease. Sometimes it is difficult to sell a property with a short lease as mortgage lenders less inclined to grant a loan on properties of this type. Lease enfranchisement can be a difficult process. We advise that you get professional assistance from a solicitor and surveyor with experience in this area

Last month I purchased a leasehold property in St Johns. Do I have any liability for service charges relating to a period prior to my ownership?

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. However, 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 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 work for a busy estate agent office in St Johns where we have witnessed a number of flat sales jeopardised as a result of leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given inconsistent advice from local St Johns conveyancing firms. Can you clarify whether the owner of a flat can initiate the lease extension process for the buyer?

As long as the seller has owned the lease for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. The benefit of this is that the buyer need not have 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 simultaneously with 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 purchaser.

What advice can you give us when it comes to appointing a St Johns conveyancing practice to deal with our lease extension?

When appointing a property lawyer for lease extension works (regardless if they are a St Johns conveyancing practice) it is imperative that he or she should be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of work. We recommend that you make enquires with several firms including non St Johns conveyancing practices prior to instructing a firm. If the firm is ALEP accredited then that’s a bonus. Some following of questions might be useful:

  • How familiar is the practice with lease extension legislation?
  • If the firm is not ALEP accredited then what is the reason?

    • Do you have any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in St Johns with the purpose of expediting the sale process?

    • A significant proportion of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in St Johns can be reduced if you get in touch lawyers as soon as your agents start marketing the property and request that they start to collate the leasehold information needed by the purchasers’ conveyancers.
    • Many landlords or Management Companies in St Johns levy fees for supplying management packs for a leasehold homes. You or your lawyers should discover the fee that they propose to charge. The management pack 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 reason for delay in leasehold conveyancing in St Johns.
  • A minority of St Johns leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this applies to your lease, it would be prudent to place the estate agents on notice to make sure that the purchasers obtain bank and professional references. The 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 service charge figures so that they can pass this information on to the purchasers or their solicitors.
  • If you have had conflict with your landlord or managing agents it is essential that these are settled before the property is put on the market. The purchasers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a flat where a dispute is ongoing. You may have to bite the bullet and discharge any arrears of service charge or resolve the dispute prior to completion of the sale. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled ahead of the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You will still have to reveal details of the dispute to the buyers, but it is clearly preferable to present the dispute as historic rather than unresolved.
  • If you hold a share in a the Management Company, you should ensure that you are holding the original share certificate. Organising a new share certificate is often a time consuming formality and slows down many a St Johns home move. If a duplicate share is required, do contact the company director and secretary or managing agents (where applicable) for this as soon as possible.

    • After months of dialogue we are unable to agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in St Johns. Does the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal have jurisdiction to calculate the appropriate figures?

    Most definitely. We can put you in touch with a St Johns conveyancing firm who can help.

    An example of a Lease Extension matter before the tribunal for a St Johns flat is 73 Walerand Road in August 2012. the result of the findings of the Tribunal led to a premium to be paid for the extended lease in respect of Flat 73 in the sum of £10,040. The premium applicable in respect of Flat 85 was £5,710. This case related to 2 flats. The unexpired lease term was 72 years.