Top Five Questions relating to Uxbridge leasehold conveyancing
Helen (my wife) and I may need to rent out our Uxbridge garden flat for a while due to taking a sabbatical. We instructed a Uxbridge conveyancing firm in 2004 but they have closed and we did not have the foresight to seek any guidance as to whether the lease allows us to sublet. How do we find out?
Notwithstanding that your previous Uxbridge conveyancing solicitor is not available you can review your lease to check if it allows you to sublet the property. The accepted inference is that if the deeds are non-specific, subletting is permitted. There may be a precondition that you must obtain permission via your landlord or some other party in advance of subletting. The net result is you not allowed to sublet in the absence of prior consent. Such consent must not not be unreasonably withheld. If your lease prohibits you from letting out the property you will need to ask your landlord for their consent.
I have just started marketing my ground floor apartment in Uxbridge.Conveyancing lawyers have not yet been instructed but I have just had a quarterly maintenance charge invoice – what should I do?
Your conveyancing lawyer is likely to suggest that you should 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 management companies 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. This will smooth the conveyancing process.
I am employed by a busy estate agent office in Uxbridge where we have witnessed a number of leasehold sales derailed as a result of leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given inconsistent advice from local Uxbridge conveyancing firms. Can you confirm whether the owner of a flat can start the lease extension formalities 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. This means that the proposed purchaser need not have to wait 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed before, or at the same time as completion of the sale.
Alternatively, it may be possible 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.
Can you provide any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Uxbridge from the point of view of speeding up the sale process?
- Much of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Uxbridge can be bypassed if you appoint lawyers the minute your agents start marketing the property and ask them to collate the leasehold information needed by the purchasers’ conveyancers.
- The majority freeholders or Management Companies in Uxbridge charge for providing management packs for a leasehold homes. You or your lawyers should discover the fee that they propose to charge. The management information sought on or before finding a buyer, thus reducing delays. The average time it takes to receive management information is three weeks. It is the most usual reason for delay in leasehold conveyancing in Uxbridge.
Our conveyancer has advised that he intends to complete and exchange simultaneously on the sale of our £375000 garden flat in Uxbridge in six days. The management company has quoted £324 for Certificate of Compliance, building insurance schedule and previous years statements of service charge. Is the landlord entitled to charge an administration fee for a flat conveyance in Uxbridge?
Uxbridge conveyancing on leasehold apartments normally involves the purchaser’s solicitor submitting enquiries for the landlord to address. Although the landlord is under no legal obligation to answer these enquiries the majority will be content to do so. They may charge a reasonable administration fee for answering 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 in excess of £800. The management information fee levied by the landlord must be sent together with a synopsis of rights and obligations in relation to administration fees, without which the charge is not strictly payable. Reality however dictates that one has no option but to pay whatever is requested of you should you wish to exchange contracts with the buyer.
I am the leaseholder of a first floor flat in Uxbridge. Given that I can not reach agreement with the landlord, can the Leasehold valuation Tribunal make a decision on the premium payable for a lease extension?
Where there is a missing landlord or if there is dispute about what the lease extension should cost, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) to decide the premium.
An example of a Freehold Enfranchisement case for a Uxbridge premises is 164 Nestles Avenue in October 2013. The tribunal agreed with the proposed price of £20,158 for the freehold and determined that that sum is the amount to be paid into court This case related to 2 flats. The the unexpired term as at the valuation date was 69 years.
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