Fixed-fee leasehold conveyancing in North West London:

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While any conveyancing practice can theoretically deal with your leasehold conveyancing in North West London, your mortgage provider may unwilling to work with them if the firm are not on their list of approved solicitors for conveyancing

Questions and Answers: North West London leasehold conveyancing

I am on look out for some leasehold conveyancing in North West London. Before I get started I would like to find out the remaining lease term.

Assuming the lease is registered - and almost all are in North West London - 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.

Due to sign contracts shortly on a basement flat in North West London. Conveyancing solicitors inform me that they report fully tomorrow. What should I be looking out for?

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

  • The physical extent of the demise. This will be the flat itself but could also include a roof space or basement if applicable.
  • Whether the lease restricts you from subletting the flat, or working from home
  • You need to be told what constitutes a Nuisance in the lease
  • Repair and maintenance of the flat
  • Changes to the flat (alterations and additions)
  • Whether the landlord has obligations to ensure rights of quiet enjoyment over your premises and do you know what it means in practice?
  • Responsibility for repairing the window frames For a comprehensive list of information to be contained in your report on your leasehold property in North West London please ask your conveyancer in ahead of your conveyancing in North West London

    • I have just started marketing my basement flat in North West London.Conveyancing lawyers have not yet been instructed but I have just had a yearly maintenance charge invoice – Do I pay up?

    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 managing agents will not acknowledge the buyer unless 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 a negotiator for a busy estate agent office in North West London where we have witnessed a few flat sales jeopardised as a result of leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given contradictory information from local North West London conveyancing firms. Can you clarify whether the seller 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 start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. This means that the buyer 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 before, or at the same time as completion of the sale.

    An alternative approach is 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 buyer.

    What makes a North West London lease defective?

    There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in North West London. Most leases is drafted differently and legal mistakes in the legal wording can sometimes mean that certain clauses are missing. The following missing provisions could result in a defective lease:

    • A provision to repair to or maintain elements of the property
    • Insurance obligations
    • A provision for the recovery of money spent for the benefit of another party.
    • Maintenance charge proportions which don’t add up to the correct percentage

    A defective lease can cause problems when trying to sell a property as they can affect a potential buyer’s ability to obtain a mortgage. Lloyds TSB Bank, Bank of Scotland, and Clydesdale all have very detailed conveyancing instructions when it comes to what is expected in a lease. Where a lender has been advised by their lawyers that the lease is problematic they may refuse to grant the mortgage, forcing the buyer to pull out.

    North West London Leasehold Conveyancing - Sample of Queries Prior to buying

      Who are the managing agents? In the main the outlay for major works tend not to be incorporated into the maintenance charges, albeit that a few managing agents in North West London obliged tenants to contribute towards a sinking fund and this is used to offset against larger repairs or maintenance. What is the length of the lease?

    Other Topics

    Lease Extensions in North West London