Fixed-fee leasehold conveyancing in Wembley Park:

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Leasehold conveyancing in Wembley Park is more complex than freehold. Your home move will be smoother where you choose a lawyer with a wealth of experience of leasehold conveyancing in Wembley Park and next step up in loc. The lawyers we recommend have been approved by your lender so use our search tool to check.

Top Five Questions relating to Wembley Park leasehold conveyancing

I am on look out for some leasehold conveyancing in Wembley Park. Before diving in I require certainty as to the number of years remaining on the lease.

If the lease is registered - and 99.9% are in Wembley Park - then the leasehold title will always include the basic details of the lease, namely the date; the term; and the original parties. From a conveyancing perspective such details then enable any prospective buyer and lender to confirm that any lease they are looking at is the one relevant to that title.For any other purpose, such as confirming how long the term was granted for and calculating what is left, then the register should be sufficient on it's own.

Having checked my lease I have discovered that there are only 72 years unexpired on my lease in Wembley Park. I now want to get lease extension but my landlord is can not be found. What are my options?

If you qualify, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the County Court for an order to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will mean that your lease can be granted an extra 90 years by the magistrate. You will be obliged to prove that you have done all that could be expected to track down the freeholder. On the whole an enquiry agent should be helpful to conduct investigations and prepare an expert document which can be used as proof that the freeholder is indeed missing. It is wise to seek advice from a conveyancer both on devolving into the landlord’s disappearance and the application to the County Court overseeing Wembley Park.

I am hoping to put an offer on a small detached house that appears to meet my requirements, at a reasonable price which is making it all the more appealing. I have just been informed that the title is leasehold rather than freehold. I am assuming that there are particular concerns buying a leasehold house in Wembley Park. Conveyancing solicitors have are about to be appointed. Will they explain the issues?

The majority of houses in Wembley Park are freehold rather than leasehold. In this scenario it’s worth having a local solicitor who is familiar with the area can assist with the conveyancing process. We note that you are buying in Wembley Park so you should seriously consider shopping around for a Wembley Park conveyancing practitioner and check 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 leaseholder you will not be entirely free to do whatever you want with the house. The lease comes with conditions for example obtaining the freeholder’sconsent to carry out alterations. You may also be required to pay a service charge towards the upkeep of the communal areas where the house is part of an estate. Your conveyancer should advise you fully on all the issues.

I am employed by a long established estate agency in Wembley Park where we have experienced a number of leasehold sales derailed due to short leases. I have received contradictory information from local Wembley Park conveyancing firms. Please can you confirm whether the owner of a flat can start 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 commence the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. The benefit of this is that the buyer can avoid having to sit tight for 2 years to extend their lease. 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 agree the lease extension with the freeholder 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 Wembley Park from the perspective of expediting the sale process?

  • Much of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Wembley Park can be reduced where you instruct lawyers the minute your agents start advertising the property and request that they start to collate the leasehold information needed by the purchasers’ conveyancers.
  • If you have carried out any alterations to the residence would they have required Landlord’s permission? Have you, for example installed wooden flooring? Wembley Park leases often stipulate that internal structural changes or laying down wooden flooring necessitate a licence issued by the Landlord acquiescing to such alterations. Where you fail to have the paperwork to hand do not contact the landlord without checking with your solicitor in advance.
  • Some Wembley Park leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this applies to your lease, it would be prudent to 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 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 buyers or their solicitors.
  • If you have had conflict with your freeholder 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 flat where there is an ongoing dispute. You will have to accept that you will have to pay any arrears of service charge or settle 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 details of the dispute to the purchasers, but it is clearly preferable to present the dispute as historic as opposed to ongoing.
  • You may think that you are aware of the number of years left on your lease but you should verify this by asking your solicitors. A buyer’s conveyancer will be unlikely to recommend their client to where the lease term is under 80 years. It is therefore important at an early stage that you consider whether the lease term requires a lease extension. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your home on the market for sale.

    • We have reached the end of our tether in trying to purchase the freehold in Wembley Park. Can the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal adjudicate on premiums?

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

    An example of a Lease Extension matter before the tribunal for a Wembley Park flat is Ground Floor Flat 69 Clifton Avenue in March 2012. the Tribunal determined that the premium payable for the new lease was £5,932 This case related to 1 flat. The the unexpired term as at the valuation date was 76.06 years.

    Other Topics

    Lease Extensions in Wembley Park