I am in need of some leasehold conveyancing in Newent. Before I get started I require certainty as to the remaining lease term.

Assuming the lease is recorded at the land registry - and 99.9% are in Newent - then the leasehold title will always include the short particulars 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’m about to sell my 2 bed flat in Newent.Conveyancing is yet to be initiated but I have just had a half-yearly maintenance charge invoice – what should I do?

It best that you pay the service charge as normal because all ground rent and service charges will be apportioned on completion, so you will be reimbursed by the buyer for the period running from after the completion date to the next payment date. Most management companies will not acknowledge the buyer until the service charges have been paid and are up to date so it is important for both buyer and seller for the seller to show that they are up to date. Having a clear account will assist your cause and will leave you no worse off financially.

I am tempted by the attractive purchase price for a couple of apartments in Newent which have in the region of forty five years left on the leases. Should I regard a short lease as a deal breaker?

There are plenty of short leases in Newent. The lease is a legal document that entitles you to use the premises for a period of time. As the lease shortens the saleability of the lease decreases and it becomes more costly to acquire a lease extension. For this reason it is often a good idea to extend the lease term. Sometimes it is difficulties arise selling premises with a short lease because mortgage lenders less inclined to grant a loan on properties of this type. Lease enfranchisement can be a difficult process. We recommend you get professional assistance from a conveyancer and surveyor with experience in this arena

I work for a long established estate agency in Newent where we see a number of flat sales derailed as a result of short leases. I have been given conflicting advice from local Newent conveyancing firms. Can you clarify whether the vendor of a flat can initiate the lease extension formalities for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

Provided that 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 buyer need not have 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 simultaneously with 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.

What makes a Newent lease problematic?

There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Newent. All leases is drafted differently and legal mistakes in the legal wording can result in certain clauses are wrong. The following missing provisions could result in a defective lease:

• Repairing obligations to or maintain elements of the premises
• 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 can cause issues when trying to sell a property primarily because it impacts on the ability to obtain a mortgage on the property. National Westminster Bank, Leeds Building Society, and Nottingham Building Society all have very detailed requirements when it comes to what is expected in a lease. If a mortgage lender believes that the lease is defective they may refuse to provide security, forcing the purchaser to pull out.

Newent Leasehold Conveyancing - A selection of Questions you should consider before buying

Best to be warned if fixing the lift or some other significant cost is coming up to be shared between the leasehold owners and will dramatically increase the the maintenance fees or necessitate a specific invoice. You will want to discover as much as possible about the company managing the building as they will either make your life much simpler or a lot more difficult. 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 communal areas. Ask other tenants what they think of them. On a final note, find out the dates that you are obliged pay the service charge to the appropriate party and precisely what you get for your money.