I wish to sublet my leasehold apartment in Mevagissey. Conveyancing solicitor who did the purchase is retired - so can't ask him. Do I need to ask my freeholder for permission?

Even though your previous Mevagissey conveyancing lawyer is not around you can review your lease to check if you are permitted to let out the premises. The rule is that if the deeds are silent, subletting is allowed. Quite often there is a prerequisite that you need to obtain consent via your landlord or other appropriate person prior to subletting. The net result is that you cannot sublet without first obtaining consent. The consent should not be unreasonably refused ore delayed. If the lease does not allow you to sublet you will need to ask your landlord if they are willing to waive this restriction.

I own a leasehold flat in Mevagissey. Conveyancing and Yorkshire Building Society mortgage went though with no issue. I have received a letter from someone claiming to own the freehold. It included a demand for arrears of ground rent dating back to 1998. The conveyancing solicitor in Mevagissey who previously acted has now retired.Any advice?

The first thing you should do is make enquiries of HMLR to make sure that this person is indeed the registered owner of the freehold reversion. There is no need to instruct a Mevagissey conveyancing solicitor to do this as you can do this on the Land Registry website for £3. Rest assured that regardless, even if this is the legitimate freeholder, under the Limitation Act 1980 no more than 6 years of rent can be collected.

I am looking at a two apartments in Mevagissey which have in the region of 50 years unexpired on the leases. Should I regard a short lease as a deal breaker?

A lease is a legal document that entitles you to use the premises for a prescribed time frame. As a lease gets shorter the saleability of the lease decreases and results in it becoming more costly to extend the lease. For this reason it is generally wise to extend the lease term. More often than not it is difficult to sell a property with a short lease because mortgage lenders less inclined to grant a loan on such properties. Lease extension can be a difficult process. We advise that you seek professional help from a conveyancer and surveyor with experience in this arena

Last month I purchased a leasehold flat in Mevagissey. Am I liable to pay service charges relating to a period prior to completion of my purchase?

In a situation where the service charge has already been demanded from the previous owner and they have not paid you would not usually be personally liable for the arrears. Strange as it may seem, your landlord may still be able to take action to forfeit the lease. A critical element of leasehold conveyancing for your conveyancer to ensure to have an up to date clear service charge receipt before completion of your purchase. If you have a mortgage this is likely to be a requirement of your lender.

If you purchase part way through an accounting year you may be liable for charges not yet demanded even if they relate to a period prior to your purchase. In such circumstances your conveyancer would normally arrange for the seller to set aside some money to cover their part of the period (usually called a service charge retention).

I work for a long established estate agency in Mevagissey where we see a number of leasehold sales jeopardised as a result of leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given contradictory information from local Mevagissey conveyancing solicitors. Could you shed some light as to whether the seller of a flat can start the lease extension process for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

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 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 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 buyer.

Mevagissey Leasehold Conveyancing - A selection of Questions you should consider before Purchasing

Plenty Mevagissey leasehold flats will have a service bill for maintenance of the block set on behalf of the landlord. Where you buy the property you will have to meet this liability, usually in instalments throughout the year. This could differ from two or three hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for blocks with lifts and large communal grounds. There will also be a ground rent to be met annual, this is usually not a large sum, say approximately £25-£75 but you should to check as on occasion it could be many hundreds of pounds. Does this lease have more than 85 years unexpired? What prohibitions are there in the Mevagissey Lease?

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Mevagissey