My wife and I may need to rent out our St Pancras ground floor flat for a while due to taking a sabbatical. We instructed a St Pancras conveyancing practice in 2003 but they have since shut and we did not have the foresight to get any advice as to whether the lease allows us to sublet. How do we find out?

Notwithstanding that your previous St Pancras conveyancing lawyer is no longer around you can review your lease to check if it allows you to sublet the apartment. The accepted inference is that if the deeds are silent, subletting is permitted. There may be a precondition that you are obliged to obtain consent via your landlord or some other party prior to subletting. The net result is you not allowed to sublet in the absence of first obtaining consent. The consent should not be unreasonably withheld. If the lease does not allow you to sublet you will need to ask your landlord if they are willing to waive this restriction.

I am hoping to put an offer on a small detached house that appears to tick a lot of boxes, at a reasonable price which is making it all the more appealing. I have since been informed that it's a leasehold rather than freehold. I am assuming that there are issues purchasing a house with a leasehold title in St Pancras. Conveyancing lawyers have not yet been instructed. Will they explain the issues?

Most houses in St Pancras are freehold rather than leasehold. This is one of the situations where having a local conveyancer used to dealing with such properties who can help the conveyancing process. We note that you are purchasing in St Pancras so you should seriously consider looking for a St Pancras conveyancing solicitor and be sure that they have experience in dealing with leasehold houses. As a matter of priority you will need to check the number of years remaining. As a tenant you will not be entirely free to do whatever you want with the house. The lease will likely included provisions for example obtaining the landlord’sconsent to carry out changes to the property. You may also be required to pay a maintenance charge towards the maintenance of the estate where the house is part of an estate. Your solicitor should advise you fully on all the issues.

Do you have any advice for leasehold conveyancing in St Pancras with the purpose of expediting the sale process?

• Much of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in St Pancras can be avoided where you instruct lawyers as soon as you market your property and ask them to collate the leasehold information which will be required by the buyers conveyancers.
• Many freeholders or Management Companies in St Pancras charge for providing management packs for a leasehold property. You or your lawyers should find out the actual amount of the charges. The management pack can be applied for on or before finding a buyer, thus accelerating the process. The average time it takes to receive management information is three weeks. It is the most common reason for delay in leasehold conveyancing in St Pancras.

If you have carried out any alterations to the property would they have required Landlord’s consent? Have you, for example laid down wooden flooring? Most leases in St Pancras state that internal structural changes or addition of wooden flooring necessitate a licence issued by the Landlord consenting to such works. If you dont have the consents in place you should not contact the landlord without checking with your solicitor in the first instance.

Some St Pancras leases require Landlord’s consent to the sale and approval of the buyers. If this applies to your lease, you should notify your estate agents to make sure that the purchasers obtain financial (bank) and professional references. The bank reference should make it clear that the buyer is able to meet the yearly 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 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 unsettled. You may need to swallow your pride and pay any arrears of service charge or settle the dispute prior to completion of the sale. 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 details of the dispute to the buyers, but it is better to present the dispute as over as opposed to unsettled.

We expect to complete the disposal of our £125000 flat in St Pancras on Thursday in a week. The managing agents has quoted £396 for Certificate of Compliance, building insurance schedule and 3 years statements of service charge. Is the landlord entitled to charge such fees for a leasehold conveyance in St Pancras?

St Pancras conveyancing on leasehold flats typically results in fees being levied by managing agents :

• Addressing conveyancing due diligence questions
• Where consent is required before sale in St Pancras
• Copies of the building insurance and schedule
• Deeds of covenant upon sale
• Registering of the assignment of the change of lessee after a sale

Your lawyer will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for St Pancras leasehold property is £350. For St Pancras conveyancing transactions it is customary for the seller to pay for these costs. The landlord or their agents are under no legal obligation to answer such questions most will be willing to do so - albeit often at exorbitant prices where the fees bear little relation to the work involved. Unfortunately there is no law that requires fixed charges for administrative tasks. Neither is there any legal time frame by which they are required to provide the information.

I am the registered owner of a garden flat in St Pancras. In the absence of agreement between myself and the freeholder, can the Leasehold valuation Tribunal make a decision on the premium due for the purchase of the freehold?

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

An example of a Lease Extension decision for a St Pancras property is Flat 89 Trinity Court Grays Inn Road in February 2013. the Tribunal found that the premium to be paid by the tenant on the grant of a new lease, in accordance with section 56 and Schedule 13 to the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 should be £36,229. This case affected 1 flat. The unexpired lease term was 66.8 years.

What makes a St Pancras lease unacceptable for security purposes?

There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in St Pancras. All leases is drafted differently and drafting errors can sometimes mean that certain sections are missing. The following missing provisions could result in a defective lease:

• Repairing obligations to or maintain elements of the property
• 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 difficulties when selling your property if you have a defective lease as they can affect a potential buyer’s ability to obtain a mortgage. Accord Mortgages Ltd, Leeds Building Society, and Godiva Mortgages Ltd all have express 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, forcing the buyer to withdraw.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in St Pancras