Helen (my wife) and I may need to let out our Normanton garden flat for a while due to a new job. We instructed a Normanton conveyancing firm in 2001 but they have since shut and we did not have the foresight to seek any guidance as to whether the lease permits subletting. How do we find out?

The lease dictates the relationship between the freeholder and you the flat owner; specifically, it will indicate if subletting is banned, or permitted but only subject to certain caveats. The accepted inference is that if the lease contains no expres ban or restriction, subletting is permitted. Most leases in Normanton do not contain strict prohibition on subletting – such a provision would adversely affect the market value the flat. In most cases there is a basic requirement that the owner notifies the freeholder, possibly supplying a copy of the sublease.

There are only Fifty years unexpired on my flat in Normanton. I now wish to extend my lease but my landlord is missing. What should I do?

On the basis that you meet the appropriate requirements, 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 granted an extra 90 years by the magistrate. However, you will be required to demonstrate that you have done all that could be expected to track down the freeholder. On the whole an enquiry agent may be helpful to try and locate and prepare an expert document to be accepted by the court as evidence that the landlord is indeed missing. It is advisable to get professional help from a conveyancer both on investigating the landlord’s disappearance and the application to the County Court covering Normanton.

Due to complete next month on a garden flat in Normanton. Conveyancing solicitors assured me that they will have a report out to me tomorrow. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?

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

• Setting out your legal entitlements in relation to the communal areas in the building.E.G., does the lease grant a right of way over a path or hallways?

Last month I purchased a leasehold flat in Normanton. Do I have any liability for service charges relating to a period prior to completion of my purchase?

In a situation where the service charge has already been demanded from the previous lessee 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. A critical element of leasehold conveyancing for your conveyancer to be sure 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).

I am employed by a reputable estate agent office in Normanton where we see a few flat sales jeopardised as a result of leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given contradictory information from local Normanton conveyancing firms. Can you clarify whether the vendor of a flat can commence the lease extension formalities for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

As long as the seller has been the owner for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to kick-start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. This means that the proposed purchaser need not have to sit tight for 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed before, or at the same time as completion of the sale.

Alternatively, it may be possible 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 purchaser.

Normanton Leasehold Conveyancing - A selection of Questions you should ask before Purchasing

The prefered form of lease structure is a share of the freehold. In this scenario the lessees enjoy control and notwithstanding that a managing agent is frequently retained if it is bigger than a house conversion, the managing agent acts for the leaseholders themselves. If a Normanton lease has no more than eighty years it will impact the value of the flat. It is worth checking with your bank that they are willing to lend given the lease term. A short lease means that you will probably need a lease extension at some point and it is worth finding out how much this will be. Remember, in most cases you would be required to have been the owner of the property for a couple of years in order to be legally able to extend the lease. It would be prudent to investigate if there is anything that is prohibited in the lease. For instance plenty of leases prohibit pets being allowed in in a block in Normanton. If you like the flatin Normanton yet your cat is not allowed to move with you then you will be faced hard decision.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Normanton