I am on look out for some leasehold conveyancing in Mickleover. Before I get started I require certainty as to the remaining lease term.

Assuming the lease is registered - and most are in Mickleover - 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.

Back In 2004, I bought a leasehold flat in Mickleover. Conveyancing and Accord Mortgages Ltd mortgage went though with no issue. A letter has just been received from someone saying they have taken over the freehold. Attached was a demand for arrears of ground rent dating back to 1996. The conveyancing practitioner in Mickleover who acted for me is not around.Any advice?

First make enquiries of the Land Registry to be sure that the individual purporting to own the freehold is in fact the new freeholder. It is not necessary to incur the fees of a Mickleover conveyancing lawyer to do this as you can do this on the Land Registry website for £3. You should note that regardless, even if this is the legitimate freeholder, under the Limitation Act 1980 no more than 6 years of rent can be collected.

Can you provide any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Mickleover from the point of view of saving time on the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Mickleover can be avoided where you appoint lawyers as soon as your agents start advertising the property and ask them to collate the leasehold information which will be required by the purchasers’ conveyancers.
• Many freeholders or Management Companies in Mickleover 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 pack can be applied for on or before finding a buyer, thus accelerating the process. The average time it takes to receive management information is three weeks. It is the most frequent reason for frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Mickleover.

Some Mickleover leases require Landlord’s consent to the sale and approval of the buyers. If this applies to your lease, you should notify your estate agents to make sure that the purchasers put in hand bank and professional references. The bank reference should make it clear that the buyer is able to meet the yearly 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 lawyers.

If you have had any disputes with your landlord or managing agents it is very important that these are resolved 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 resolve the dispute prior to the buyers completing the purchase. 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 clearly preferable to reveal the dispute as historic as opposed to unsettled.

You believe that you know the number of years remaining on your lease but it would be advisable verify this by asking your conveyancers. A buyer’s lawyer will be unlikely to recommend their client to to exchange contracts if the lease term is under 75 years. It is therefore important at an early stage that you consider whether the lease requires a lease extension. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your home on the market for sale.

If all goes to plan we aim to complete our sale of a £200000 apartment in Mickleover next Thursday . The management company has quoted £324 for Landlord’s certificate, insurance certificate and previous years service charge statements. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge an administration fee for a leasehold conveyance in Mickleover?

For the majority of leasehold sales in Mickleover conveyancing will involve, queries regarding the management of a building inevitably needing to be answered directly by the freeholder or its agent, this includes :

• Answering pre-exchange enquiries
• Where consent is required before sale in Mickleover
• Copies of the building insurance and schedule
• Deeds of covenant upon sale
• Registering of the assignment of the change of lessee after a sale

Your lawyer will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for Mickleover leasehold premises is £350. For Mickleover conveyancing transactions it is customary for the seller to pay for these costs. The landlord or their agents are under no legal obligation to answer such questions most will be willing to do so - albeit often at exorbitant prices where the fees bear little relation to the work involved. Unfortunately there is no law that requires fixed charges for administrative tasks. Neither is there any legal time frame by which they are obliged to provide answers.

When it comes to leasehold conveyancing in Mickleover what are the most common lease problems?

Leasehold conveyancing in Mickleover is not unique. All leases are unique and drafting errors can sometimes mean that certain provisions are wrong. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:

• A provision to repair to or maintain parts of the property
• A duty to insure the building
• 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 as they can affect a potential buyer’s ability to obtain a mortgage. HSBC Bank, Leeds Building Society, and Bank of Ireland all have very detailed conveyancing instructions when it comes to what is expected in a lease. If a mortgage lender believes that the lease is defective they may refuse to grant the mortgage, obliging the buyer to pull out.

Mickleover Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - Examples of Queries Prior to Purchasing

How many of the leaseholders are in arrears for their service charge payments? Does the lease have onerous restrictions? You should be aware that where the lease has less than 80 years it will affect the marketability of the flat. Check with your mortgage company that they are happy with remaining years on the lease. A short lease means that you will most likely have to extend the lease at some point and you need to have some idea of how much this would cost. For most Mickleoverlease extensions you would be be obliged to have owned the residence for 24 months in order to be eligible to carry out a lease extension.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Mickleover