Leasehold Conveyancing in Meliden - Get a Quote from the leasehold experts approved by your lender

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When it comes to leasehold conveyancing in Meliden, you will need to appoint a conveyancing lawyer with leasehold experience. Whether your mortgage company is to be Santander, Yorkshire Building Society or NatWest be sure to find a lawyer on their approved list. Find a Meliden conveyancing lawyer with our search tool

Sample questions relating to Meliden leasehold conveyancing

Frank (my husband) and I may need to rent out our Meliden basement flat temporarily due to a new job. We used a Meliden conveyancing firm in 2003 but they have since shut and we did not think at the time seek any advice as to whether the lease permits subletting. How do we find out?

A small minority of properties in Meliden do contain a provision to say that subletting is only permitted with prior consent from the landlord. The landlord is not entitled to unreasonably refuse but, in such cases, they would need to review references. Experience dictates that problems are usually caused by unsatisfactory tenants rather than owner-occupiers and for that reason you can expect the freeholder to take up the references and consider them carefully before granting permission.

Estate agents have just been given the go-ahead to market my basement flat in Meliden.Conveyancing has not commenced but I have just received a quarterly maintenance charge invoice – what should I do?

The sensible thing to do is clear the invoice 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 unless 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.

My wife and I purchased a leasehold house in Meliden. Conveyancing and Leeds Building Society mortgage are in place. I have received a letter from someone claiming to own the freehold. It included a demand for arrears of ground rent dating back to 1991. The conveyancing solicitor in Meliden who previously acted has now retired.What should I do?

The first thing you should do is contact the Land Registry to make sure that this person is indeed the registered owner of the freehold reversion. There is no need to incur the fees of a Meliden conveyancing solicitor to do this as you can do this on the Land Registry website for less than a fiver. You should note that in any event, even if this is the rightful freeholder, under the Limitation Act 1980 the limitation period for recovery of ground rent is six years.

I am a negotiator for a long established estate agent office in Meliden where we have experienced a number of flat sales jeopardised due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given conflicting advice from local Meliden conveyancing solicitors. Please can you shed some light as to whether the seller of a flat can instigate 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 commence 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 sit tight for 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed prior to, or simultaneously with completion of the disposal of the property.

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 purchaser.

Can you provide any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Meliden from the perspective of speeding up the sale process?

  • A significant proportion of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Meliden can be bypassed if you get in touch lawyers the minute your agents start marketing the property and ask them to put together the leasehold information needed by the purchasers’ lawyers.
  • If you have carried out any alterations to the residence would they have required Landlord’s approval? Have you, for example installed wooden flooring? Meliden leases often stipulate that internal structural alterations or laying down wooden flooring require a licence from the Landlord consenting to such works. If you fail to have the approvals to hand you should not communicate with the landlord without checking with your lawyer first.
  • Some Meliden leases require Landlord’s consent to the sale and approval of the buyers. If this is the case, you should place the estate agents on notice to make sure that the purchasers put in hand 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 purchasers or their solicitors.
  • If there is a history of any disputes with your landlord or managing agents it is essential that these are resolved before the property is marketed. The purchasers and their solicitors will be concerned about purchasing a property where there is an ongoing dispute. You may need to swallow your pride and pay any arrears of service charge or settle the dispute prior to completion of the sale. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled ahead of the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You are still duty bound to disclose particulars of the dispute to the purchasers, but it is better to reveal the dispute as over rather than unresolved.
  • If you hold a share in a the freehold, you should ensure that you have the original share document. Organising a duplicate share certificate is often a time consuming formality and frustrates many a Meliden conveyancing transaction. If a duplicate share is required, do contact the company officers or managing agents (if applicable) for this at the earliest opportunity.

    • Meliden Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - A selection of Questions you should ask before buying

      Who is in charge of the building? Make sure you find out if the the lease includes any onerous restrictions in the lease. By way of example it is reasonably common in Meliden leases that pets are not allowed in certain buildings in Meliden. If you like the flatin Meliden yet your cat can’t move with you then you will be presented with a hard compromise. Please inform me if there are any major works anticipated that will increase the maintenance fees?

    Other Topics

    Lease Extensions in Meliden