There are only 68 years left on my flat in Marlow. I need to get lease extension but my landlord is can not be found. What options are available to me?

If you meet the appropriate requirements, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the County Court for for permission 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. However, you will be required to prove that you have used your best endeavours to track down the freeholder. For most situations an enquiry agent should be useful to try and locate and prepare an expert document which can be used as proof that the landlord is indeed missing. It is wise to seek advice from a property lawyer in relation to proving the landlord’s disappearance and the application to the County Court covering Marlow.

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

There are plenty of short leases in Marlow. The lease is a legal document that entitles you to use the property for a period of time. As a lease gets shorter the value of the lease reduces and it becomes more costly to extend the lease. For this reason it is often a good idea to increase the term of the lease. More often than not it is difficult to sell a property with a short lease as mortgage lenders may be unwilling to lend money on properties of this type. Lease enfranchisement can be a difficult process. We advise that you get professional assistance from a conveyancer and surveyor with experience in this field

I am employed by a long established estate agent office in Marlow where we have witnessed a few leasehold sales put at risk due to short leases. I have received inconsistent advice from local Marlow conveyancing firms. Can you confirm whether the owner of a flat can instigate the lease extension formalities for the buyer?

As long as 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. The benefit of this is that the proposed purchaser can avoid having to wait 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed prior to, or at the same time as completion of the disposal of the property.

Alternatively, it may be possible 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.

Our conveyancer has advised that he intends to complete and exchange simultaneously on our sale of a £475000 maisonette in Marlow in 8 days. The managing agents has quoted £336 for Landlord’s certificate, building insurance schedule and previous years statements of service charge. Is the landlord entitled to charge an administration fee for a flat conveyance in Marlow?

Marlow conveyancing on leasehold apartments normally necessitates the purchaser’s solicitor sending enquiries for the landlord to answer. Although the landlord is not legally bound to respond to such questions the majority will be content to do so. They may levy a reasonable administration fee for responding to questions or supplying documentation. There is no upper cap for such fees. The average fee for the information that you are referring to is £350, in some cases it exceeds £800. The management information fee required by the landlord must be sent together with a synopsis of entitlements and obligations in respect of administration fees, otherwise the invoice is technically not due. In reality one has no choice but to pay whatever is requested of you if you want to exchange contracts with the buyer.

What makes a Marlow lease problematic?

There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Marlow. All leases are individual and drafting errors can result in certain provisions are not included. The following missing provisions could result in a defective lease:

• Repairing obligations to or maintain parts of the property
• Insurance obligations
• 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

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. Lloyds TSB Bank, Barnsley Building Society, and Alliance & Leicester all have express requirements when it comes to what is expected in a lease. Where a lender has been advised by their lawyers that the lease is defective they may refuse to grant the mortgage, obliging the buyer to withdraw.

Leasehold Conveyancing in Marlow - Examples of Queries Prior to Purchasing

Is the freehold owned jointly by the tenants? Is anyone aware of any major works in the planning that will increase the maintenance costs? Many Marlow leasehold flats will be liable to pay a service charge for the upkeep of the block set on behalf of the freeholder. Should you buy the flat you will have to pay this contribution, normally quarterly accross the year. This can differ from a couple of hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for bigger purpose-built buildings. In all likelihood there will be a ground rent for you to pay yearly, this is usually not a large amount, say about £25-£75 but you should to check it because occasionally it could be surprisingly expensive.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Marlow