I am in need of some leasehold conveyancing in Nantwich. Before diving in I would like to find out the number of years remaining on the lease.

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

I am looking at a couple of flats in Nantwich which have about forty five years unexpired on the lease term. 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 property for a prescribed time frame. As a lease shortens the value of the lease decreases and results in it becoming more costly to acquire a lease extension. This is why it is often a good idea to increase the term of the lease. Sometimes 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 protracted process. We recommend you get professional assistance from a conveyancer and surveyor with experience in this field

I work for a reputable estate agent office in Nantwich where we have experienced a few leasehold sales jeopardised as a result of short leases. I have been given inconsistent advice from local Nantwich conveyancing solicitors. Could you clarify whether the owner 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 to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done before, or at the same time as completion of the disposal of the property.

An alternative approach is 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.

Do you have any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Nantwich with the aim of expediting the sale process?

• Much of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Nantwich can be bypassed where you appoint lawyers the minute you market your property and ask them to put together the leasehold documentation needed by the buyers conveyancers.
• The majority freeholders or Management Companies in Nantwich charge for providing management packs for a leasehold homes. You or your lawyers should discover the actual amount of the charges. The management information can be applied for as soon as you have 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 Nantwich.

A minority of Nantwich leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this is the case, you should notify your estate agents to make sure that the purchasers obtain financial (bank) and professional references. Any bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are financially capable of paying 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 buyers or their solicitors.

If there is a history of any disputes with your freeholder or managing agents it is very important that these are resolved prior to the flat being marketed. The buyers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a property where there is a current dispute. You may need to swallow your pride and discharge 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 prior to the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You are still duty bound to disclose details 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 you should verify this via your solicitors. A buyer’s conveyancer will be unlikely to recommend their client to where the remaining number of years is less than 75 years. It is therefore important at an early stage that you identify whether the lease requires a lease extension. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your premises on the market for sale.

We expect to complete the sale of our £125000 maisonette in Nantwich in just under a week. The freeholder has quoted £384 for Landlord’s certificate, insurance certificate and previous years service charge statements. Is the landlord entitled to charge exorbitant fees for a flat conveyance in Nantwich?

Nantwich conveyancing on leasehold apartments typically necessitates administration charges levied by management companies :

• Addressing pre-exchange enquiries
• 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 lawyer will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for Nantwich leasehold premises 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 required to supply answers.

I purchased a 1st floor flat in Nantwich, conveyancing was carried out half a dozen years ago. Can you give me give me an indication of the likely cost of a lease extension? Similar properties in Nantwich with a long lease are worth £175,000. The ground rent is £55 per annum. The lease comes to an end on 21st October 2099

With only 74 years unexpired we estimate the price of your lease extension to range between £11,400 and £13,200 plus professional fees.

The suggested premium range above a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we are not able to provide a more accurate figure in the absence of detailed investigations. Do not use the figures in tribunal or court proceedings. There may be additional issues that need to be considered and clearly you want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Neither should you move forward based on this information without first seeking the advice of a professional.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Nantwich