My fiance and I may need to let out our Wennington garden flat temporarily due to a new job. We used a Wennington conveyancing firm in 2003 but they have closed and we did not think at the time get any advice as to whether the lease permits subletting. How do we find out?

The lease governs relations between the landlord and you the flat owner; specifically, it will set out if subletting is prohibited, or permitted but only subject to certain conditions. The rule is that if the lease contains no expres ban or restriction, subletting is allowed. Most leases in Wennington do not contain strict prohibition on subletting – such a provision would adversely affect the market value the property. In most cases there is simply a requirement that the owner notifies the freeholder, possibly supplying a copy of the sublease.

There are only Fifty years remaining on my flat in Wennington. I need to get lease extension but my freeholder is missing. What options are available to me?

On the basis that you meet the appropriate requirements, 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 enable the lease to be extended by the magistrate. However, you will be required to prove that you have done all that could be expected to track down the landlord. In some cases an enquiry agent should be helpful to conduct investigations and prepare an expert document which can be accepted by the court as proof that the landlord can not be located. It is wise to seek advice from a solicitor in relation to investigating the landlord’s absence and the application to the County Court overseeing Wennington.

I am tempted by the attractive purchase price for a couple of maisonettes in Wennington both have in the region of 50 years unexpired on the lease term. Do I need to be concerned?

There are no two ways about it. A leasehold apartment in Wennington is a wasting asset as a result of the shortening lease. The closer the lease gets to its expiry date, the more it reduces the value of the property. The majority of buyers and banks, leases with less than eighty years become less and less attractive. On a more positive note, leaseholders can extend their leases by serving a Section 42 Notice. One stipulation is that they must have owned the property for two years (unlike a Section 13 notice for purchasing the freehold, when leaseholders can participate from day one of ownership). When successful, they will have the right to an extension of 90 years to the current term and ground rent is effectively reduced to zero. Before moving forward with a purchase of a residence with a short lease term remaining you should talk to a solicitor specialising in lease extensions and leasehold enfranchisement. We are are happy to put you in touch with Wennington conveyancing experts who will explain the options available to you during an initial telephone conversation free of charge. A more straightforward and quicker method of extending would be to contact your landlord directly and sound him out on the prospect of extending the lease They may agree to a smaller lump sum and an increase in the ground rent, but to shorter extension terms in return. You need to ensure that the agreed terms represent good long-term value compared with the standard benefits of the Section 42 Notice and that onerous clauses are not inserted into any redrafting of the lease.

Do you have any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Wennington from the perspective of speeding up the sale process?

• Much of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Wennington can be bypassed where you get in touch lawyers as soon as your agents start advertising the property and request that they start to collate the leasehold documentation which will be required by the purchasers’ lawyers.
• The majority landlords or managing agents in Wennington charge for supplying management packs for a leasehold homes. You or your lawyers should enquire as to 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 common cause of delay in leasehold conveyancing in Wennington.

Completion in due on the disposal of our £250000 garden flat in Wennington in just under a week. The management company has quoted £324 for Landlord’s certificate, building insurance schedule and 3 years service charge statements. Is the landlord entitled to charge such fees for a flat conveyance in Wennington?

Wennington conveyancing on leasehold apartments usually necessitates the purchaser’s conveyancer sending enquiries for the landlord to answer. Although the landlord is not legally bound to address these enquiries most will be willing to assist. They may levy a reasonable charge for responding to questions or supplying documentation. There is no upper cap for such fees. The average fee for the paperwork that you are referring to is £350, in some transactions it exceeds £800. The administration charge levied by the landlord must be sent together with a summary of entitlements and obligations in respect of administration fees, otherwise the invoice is not strictly payable. In reality one has little choice but to pay whatever is requested of you should you wish to sell the property.

Having spent months of dialogue we simply can't agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in Wennington. Does the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal have jurisdiction to calculate the appropriate figures?

Absolutely. We can put you in touch with a Wennington conveyancing firm who can help.

An example of a Lease Extension case for a Wennington flat is Various @ Colombus Square in January 2012. the Tribunal calculated the premiums to be paid for new leases for each of the flats in Mariners Walk to be £3822 and the premium to be paid for the new lease of 2 Knights Court to be £4439. This case was in relation to 13 flats. The the unexpired term as at the valuation date was 76 years.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Wennington