I only have Sixty One years left on my flat in Nantwich. I need to get lease extension but my freeholder is absent. What options are available to me?

If you qualify, 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 enable the lease to be lengthened by the magistrate. However, you will be required to prove that you have used your best endeavours to locate the lessor. In some cases an enquiry agent may be useful to try and locate and to produce an expert document to be accepted by the court as proof that the freeholder can not be located. It is advisable to get professional help from a solicitor in relation to proving the landlord’s absence and the application to the County Court overseeing Nantwich.

You should [be sent a copy of the lease|receive a copy of the lease]

Planning to exchange soon on a ground floor flat in Nantwich. Conveyancing lawyers inform me that they report fully tomorrow. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?

Your report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in Nantwich should include some of the following:

• Details of the parties to the lease, for example these could be the leaseholder (you), head lessor, freeholder
• Does the lease require carpeting throughout thus preventing wood flooring?
• Whether the lease restricts you from renting out the flat, or having a home office for business
• Ground rent - how much and when you need to pay, and also know whether this will change in the future
• You should have a good understanding of the insurance provisions
• Repair and maintenance of the flat
• What options are open to you if a neighbour breach a clause of their lease?

For a comprehensive list of information to be included in your report on your leasehold property in Nantwich please enquire of your lawyer in ahead of your conveyancing in Nantwich

Back In 2007, I bought a leasehold flat in Nantwich. Conveyancing and Skipton Building Society mortgage went though with no issue. I have received a letter from someone claiming to own the reversionary interest in the property. It included a demand for arrears of ground rent dating back to 1997. The conveyancing solicitor in Nantwich who previously acted has now retired.Any advice?

First contact HMLR to be sure that the individual claiming to own the freehold is in fact the new freeholder. You do not need to instruct a Nantwich conveyancing lawyer to do this as you can do this on the Land Registry website for less than a fiver. Rest assured that in any event, even if this is the legitimate freeholder, under the Limitation Act 1980 the limitation period for recovery of ground rent is six years.

I am looking at a two apartments in Nantwich both have approximately fifty years left on the leases. Will this present a problem?

There are plenty of short leases in Nantwich. The lease is a legal document that entitles you to use the premises for a prescribed time frame. As the lease shortens the value of the lease reduces and it becomes more expensive to acquire a lease extension. For this reason it is generally wise to extend the lease term. It is often difficulties arise selling premises with a short lease because mortgage lenders may be unwilling to lend money on such properties. Lease enfranchisement can be a difficult process. We recommend you seek professional assistance from a conveyancer and surveyor with experience in this field

We expect to complete our sale of a £ 150000 apartment in Nantwich next week. The freeholder has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Landlord’s certificate, insurance certificate and previous years statements of service charge. Is the landlord entitled to charge an administration fee for a leasehold conveyance in Nantwich?

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

• Completing pre-exchange questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Nantwich
• Supplying insurance information
• Deeds of covenant upon sale
• Registering of the assignment of the change of lessee after a sale

Your solicitor will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for Nantwich leasehold property is £350. For Nantwich 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 the information.

Nantwich Leasehold Conveyancing - Sample of Queries Prior to Purchasing

In the main the cost for major works tend not to be included within service charges, although some managing agents in Nantwich require tenants to pay into a sinking fund created for the specific purpose of building a fund for major repairs or maintenance. It is important to be aware if redecorating or some other major work is due in the near future to be shared amongst the tenants and may well materially increase the the service costs or result in a specific invoice.