North Newbald leasehold conveyancing: Q and A’s
Harry (my fiance) and I may need to sub-let our North Newbald ground floor flat temporarily due to taking a sabbatical. We used a North Newbald conveyancing practice in 2002 but they have since shut and we did not have the foresight to get any guidance as to whether the lease prohibits the subletting of the flat. How do we find out?
Notwithstanding that your previous North Newbald conveyancing lawyer is no longer around you can check your lease to check if you are permitted to let out the premises. The accepted inference is that if the lease is silent, subletting is permitted. There may be a precondition that you are obliged to obtain consent via your landlord or other appropriate person prior to subletting. The net result is you not allowed to sublet without prior consent. Such consent should not be unreasonably turned down. If your lease does not allow you to sublet you will need to ask your landlord for their consent.
Having checked my lease I have discovered that there are only 62 years remaining on my flat in North Newbald. I now wish to extend my lease but my freeholder is absent. What options are available to me?
On the basis that you qualify, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the County Court for an order to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will mean that your lease can be extended by the magistrate. You will be obliged to demonstrate that you or your lawyers have made all reasonable attempts to locate the lessor. For most situations a specialist would be useful to conduct investigations and prepare an expert document which can be used as proof that the landlord is indeed missing. It is advisable to get professional help from a solicitor both on investigating the landlord’s disappearance and the application to the County Court overseeing North Newbald.
My wife and I purchased a leasehold house in North Newbald. Conveyancing and Clydesdale mortgage organised. A letter has just been received from someone claiming to own the reversionary interest in the property. Attached was a ground rent demand for rent dating back to 1994. The conveyancing practitioner in North Newbald who previously acted has now retired.What should I do?
The first thing you should do is make enquiries of HMLR to make sure that this person is in fact the registered owner of the freehold reversion. You do not need to incur the fees of a North Newbald conveyancing lawyer to do this as it can be done on-line for a few pound. Rest assured that regardless, even if this is the rightful landlord, under the Limitation Act 1980 no more than 6 years of rent can be collected.
I am employed by a busy estate agent office in North Newbald where we have experienced a number of leasehold sales jeopardised as a result of short leases. I have been given contradictory information from local North Newbald conveyancing firms. Please can you shed some light as to whether the vendor of a flat can commence the lease extension formalities for the purchaser on completion of the sale?
Provided that 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 wait 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed prior to, or simultaneously with completion of the sale.
Alternatively, it may be possible to extend the lease informally by agreement with the landlord 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.
What are the common deficiencies that you witness in leases for North Newbald properties?
There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in North Newbald. All leases are individual and drafting errors can sometimes mean that certain provisions are not included. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:
- Repairing obligations to or maintain parts of the building
- 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 will likely cause issues when trying to sell a property as they can affect a potential buyer’s ability to obtain a mortgage. Barclays , The Royal Bank of Scotland, and Godiva Mortgages Ltd all have express 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 grant the mortgage, obliging the buyer to pull out.
I inherited a garden flat in North Newbald, conveyancing having been completed half a dozen years ago. Can you let me have an estimated range of the fair premium for a lease extension? Equivalent flats in North Newbald with a long lease are worth £267,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £55 levied per year. The lease runs out on 21st October 2101
With just 76 years left to run the likely cost is going to range between £9,500 and £11,000 as well as legals.
The figure above a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we are not able to advice on the actual costs without more detailed due diligence. Do not use the figures in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There may be other concerns that need to be taken into account and you obviously should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Neither should you take any other action based on this information without first getting professional advice.
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