Fixed-fee leasehold conveyancing in Oldham:

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Common questions relating to Oldham leasehold conveyancing

Looking forward to complete next month on a basement flat in Oldham. Conveyancing solicitors have said that they report fully tomorrow. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?

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

  • You should be sent a copy of the lease
  • Setting out your legal entitlements in respect of the communal areas in the block.E.G., does the lease include a right of way over a path or staircase?
  • Does the lease prevent you from subletting the flat, or working from home
  • You should be told what counts as a Nuisance in the lease
  • Ground rent - how much and when you need to pay, and also know whether this will change in the future
  • Repair and maintenance of the flat
  • Responsibility for repairing the window frames For a comprehensive list of information to be contained in your report on your leasehold property in Oldham please ask your solicitor in advance of your conveyancing in Oldham

    • My wife and I purchased a leasehold house in Oldham. Conveyancing and Virgin Money mortgage are in place. I have received a letter from someone claiming to own the reversionary interest in the property. Attached was a ground rent demand for rent dating back to 1995. The conveyancing practitioner in Oldham who previously acted has now retired.Do I pay?

    The first thing you should do is make enquiries of the Land Registry to be sure that the individual purporting to own the freehold is indeed the new freeholder. There is no need to instruct a Oldham conveyancing lawyer to do this as you can do this on the Land Registry website for less than a fiver. You should note that regardless, even if this is the rightful landlord, under the Limitation Act 1980 the limitation period for recovery of ground rent is six years.

    Last month I purchased a leasehold flat in Oldham. Am I liable to pay service charges for periods before completion of my purchase?

    In a situation where the service charge has already been demanded from the previous owner 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 ensure 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 long established estate agency in Oldham where we have experienced a few flat sales put at risk due to short leases. I have been given contradictory information from local Oldham conveyancing firms. Could you confirm whether the seller of a flat can start the lease extension process 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. This means that the buyer can avoid having 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 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.

    Can you provide any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Oldham with the purpose of speeding up the sale process?

    • A significant proportion of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Oldham can be reduced where you get in touch lawyers the minute your agents start marketing the property and ask them to put together the leasehold documentation which will be required by the purchasers’ conveyancers.
    • The majority freeholders or Management Companies in Oldham levy fees 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 obtain the necessary information is three weeks. It is the most common reason for delay in leasehold conveyancing in Oldham.
  • If you have carried out any alterations to the residence would they have required Landlord’s approval? In particular have you laid down wooden flooring? Oldham leases often stipulate that internal structural alterations or laying down wooden flooring calls for a licence from the Landlord consenting to such works. Where you fail to have the approvals to hand you should not communicate with the landlord without checking with your solicitor in the first instance.
  • If you have had conflict with your landlord or managing agents it is very important that these are resolved before the property is put on the market. The buyers and their solicitors will be concerned about purchasing a flat where there is a current dispute. You will have to accept that you will have to discharge any arrears of service charge or resolve the dispute prior to completion of the sale. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled ahead of the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You are still duty bound to disclose particulars of the dispute to the purchasers, but it is better to reveal the dispute as historic rather than unsettled.
  • If you have the benefit of shareholding in the freehold, you should make sure that you are holding the original share document. Obtaining a new share certificate is often a time consuming process and frustrates many a Oldham home move. Where a reissued share is required, you should approach the company director and secretary or managing agents (if relevant) for this sooner rather than later.

    • Oldham Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - A selection of Questions you should ask before Purchasing

      This question is important as a) areas could result in problems for the block as the common areas may begin to deteriorate if repairs remain unpaid b) if the leasehold owners have an issue with the running of the building you will need to have complete disclosure How many of the leaseholders are in arrears for their maintenance charge payments? What prohibitions are contained in the Oldham Lease?

    Other Topics

    Lease Extensions in Oldham