I only have 68 years remaining on my lease in Morley. I now wish to get lease extension but my landlord is absent. What options are available to me?

If you qualify, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can submit an application to the County Court for for permission to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will enable the lease to be lengthened by the magistrate. However, you will be required to prove that you or your lawyers have done all that could be expected to track down the lessor. For most situations a specialist should be helpful to conduct investigations and to produce an expert document to be accepted by the court as evidence that the freeholder can not be located. It is advisable to get professional help from a property lawyer in relation to devolving into the landlord’s disappearance and the vesting order request to the County Court overseeing Morley.

I've recently bought a leasehold property in Morley. Am I liable to pay service charges for periods before completion of my purchase?

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. It is an essential part 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).

Do you have any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Morley with the purpose of speeding up the sale process?

• Much of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Morley can be avoided if you instruct lawyers the minute you market your property and request that they start to put together the leasehold information which will be required by the buyers lawyers.
• In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s consent? Have you, for example installed wooden flooring? Most leases in Morley state that internal structural alterations or installing wooden flooring necessitate a licence issued by the Landlord consenting to such changes. If you dont have the consents in place do not contact the landlord without checking with your solicitor first.

If there is a history of conflict 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 warry about purchasing a flat where a dispute is unsettled. You may need to swallow your pride and pay any arrears of service charge or settle 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 will still have to reveal details of the dispute to the buyers, but it is better to present the dispute as over as opposed to unsettled.

If you are supposed to have a share in the freehold, you should make sure that you have the original share document. Obtaining a duplicate share certificate can be a lengthy process and delays many a Morley conveyancing deal. If a new share certificate is needed, do contact the company officers or managing agents (where relevant) for this at the earliest opportunity.

You believe that you know the number of years left on your lease but it would be wise to verify this by asking your lawyers. A purchaser's lawyer will not be happy to advise their client to to exchange contracts if the remaining number of years is less than 80 years. It is therefore essential 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.

Our conveyancer has advised that he intends to complete and exchange simultaneously on the disposal of our £450000 maisonette in Morley on Monday in a week. The managing agents has quoted £408 for Landlord’s certificate, insurance certificate and 3 years statements of service charge. Is the landlord entitled to charge exorbitant fees for a flat conveyance in Morley?

Morley conveyancing on leasehold maisonettes ordinarily involves fees being raised by managing agents :

• Answering conveyancing due diligence questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Morley
• Supplying insurance information
• 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 Morley leasehold premises is £350. For Morley 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.

What makes a Morley lease unacceptable for security purposes?

There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Morley. Most leases are unique and drafting errors can result in certain clauses are missing. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:

• A provision to repair to or maintain elements of the property
• A duty to insure the building
• A provision for the recovery of money spent for the benefit of another party.
• Service charge per centages that don't add up correctly leaving a shortfall

A defective lease will likely cause issues when trying to sell a property as they can affect a potential buyer’s ability to obtain a mortgage. Halifax, Skipton Building Society, and Alliance & Leicester all have express requirements when it comes to what is expected in a lease. If a mortgage lender believes that the lease is problematic they may refuse to grant the mortgage, forcing the purchaser to withdraw.

Morley Leasehold Conveyancing - A selection of Queries Prior to buying

It would be wise to discover as much as possible about the managing agents as they will affect your use and enjoyment of the property. Being a leasehold owner you are frequently in the clutches of the managing agents from a financial perspective and when it comes to day to day issues like the upkeep of the common parts. Ask prospective neighbours if they are happy with their service. In conclusion, investigate as to the dates that the service charges are due to the managing agents and precisely how they are spending the funds. How much is the service charge and ground rent on the flat? The best form of lease structure is if the freehold title is owned by the leaseholders. In this situation the leaseholders benefit from control and although a managing agent is usually employed where it is bigger than a house conversion, the managing agent acts for the leaseholders themselves.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Morley