I’m about to sell my ground floor flat in The Hale.Conveyancing has not commenced but I have just received a quarterly service charge demand – should I leave it to the buyer to sort out?

It best that you pay the service charge as normal because all ground rent and service charges will be apportioned on completion, so you will be reimbursed by the buyer for the period running from after the completion date to the next payment date. Most managing agents will not acknowledge the buyer until the service charges have been paid and are up to date so it is important for both buyer and seller for the seller to show that they are up to date. Having a clear account will assist your cause and will leave you no worse off financially.

I've recently bought a leasehold house in The Hale. Am I liable to pay service charges for periods before my ownership?

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. A critical element 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).

I work for a reputable estate agency in The Hale where we see a number of flat sales jeopardised due to short leases. I have received conflicting advice from local The Hale conveyancing solicitors. Can you shed some light as to whether the seller of a flat can instigate the lease extension formalities for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

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. This means that the buyer can avoid having to wait 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done before, or at the same time as 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 buyer.

Can you provide any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in The Hale from the perspective of saving time on the sale process?

• Much of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in The Hale can be bypassed if you appoint lawyers as soon as your agents start advertising the property and request that they start to put together the leasehold information which will be required by the buyers representatives.
• The majority landlords or managing agents in The Hale levy fees for providing management packs for a leasehold premises. You or your lawyers should discover the fee that they propose to charge. The management pack sought on or before finding a buyer, thus reducing delays. The typical amount of time it takes to receive management information is three weeks. It is the most usual cause of frustration in leasehold conveyancing in The Hale.
• If you have carried out any alterations to the premises would they have required Landlord’s approval? Have you, for example installed wooden flooring? Most leases in The Hale state that internal structural changes or installing wooden flooring require a licence from the Landlord acquiescing to such works. If you dont have the paperwork in place you should not communicate with the landlord without contacting your conveyancer in the first instance.
• If there is a history of conflict with your freeholder or managing agents it is very important that these are resolved before the property is put on the market. The buyers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a property where there is an ongoing dispute. You may need to swallow your pride and pay any arrears of service charge or resolve 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 particulars of the dispute to the buyers, but it is clearly preferable to present the dispute as over as opposed to unsettled.
• If you have the benefit of shareholding in the freehold, you should make sure that you have the original share certificate. Arranging a duplicate share certificate can be a lengthy formality and frustrates many a The Hale home move. If a reissued share certificate is required, do contact the company director and secretary or managing agents (where applicable) for this sooner rather than later.

Following months of correspondence we simply can't agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in The Hale. Can we issue an application to the Residential Property Tribunal Service?

in cases where there is a absentee freeholder or if there is dispute about the premium for a lease extension, under the relevant legislation it is possible to make an application to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) to calculate the amount due.

An example of a Lease Extension case for a The Hale property is 20 Orchard Court Stonegrove in June 2009. The tribunal decided that a premium of £11,040 should be payable for the new lease This case affected 1 flat. The the unexpired residue of the current lease was 71.55 years.

What makes a The Hale lease problematic?

Leasehold conveyancing in The Hale is not unique. Most leases are individual and legal mistakes in the legal wording can sometimes mean that certain sections are not included. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:

• Repairing obligations to or maintain parts of the building
• A duty to insure the building
• 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 will likely cause problems when trying to sell a property primarily because it impacts on the ability to obtain a mortgage on the property. Nationwide Building Society, The Royal Bank of Scotland, and Bank of Ireland all have very detailed conveyancing instructions 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 provide security, obliging the purchaser to pull out.

The Hale Leasehold Conveyancing - Examples of Questions you should ask before Purchasing

It would be wise to find out if there is anything that is prohibited in the lease. For example it is fairly common in The Hale leases that pets are not allowed in in a block in The Hale. If you like the propertyin The Hale but your cat can’t make the move with you then you will be presented with a hard choice.