I have recently realised that I have Fifty years unexpired on my lease in Olney. I now wish to extend my lease but my freeholder is missing. What options are available to me?

If 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 granted an extra 90 years by the magistrate. However, you will be required to prove that you or your lawyers have used your best endeavours to track down the lessor. For most situations a specialist may be useful to carry out a search and prepare an expert document to be used as evidence that the freeholder is indeed missing. It is wise to seek advice from a conveyancer both on proving the landlord’s absence and the application to the County Court covering Olney.

My wife and I purchased a leasehold flat in Olney. Conveyancing and Nottingham Building Society mortgage organised. A letter has just been received from someone claiming to own the reversionary interest in the property. Attached was a demand for arrears of ground rent dating back to 1993. The conveyancing practitioner in Olney who acted for me is not around.Any advice?

The first thing you should do is contact the Land Registry to be sure that this person is in fact the new freeholder. You do not need to incur the fees of a Olney 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 freeholder, under the Limitation Act 1980 no more than 6 years of rent can be collected.

I am looking at a couple of flats in Olney which have about 50 years remaining on the lease term. should I be concerned?

A lease is a legal document that entitles you to use the property for a period of time. As a lease shortens the value of the lease reduces and results in it becoming more costly to extend the lease. This is why it is generally wise to increase the term of the lease. It is often difficult to sell a property with a short lease as mortgage lenders less inclined to grant a loan on properties of this type. Lease extension can be a protracted process. We advise that you get professional help from a conveyancer and surveyor with experience in this field

I am a negotiator for a long established estate agent office in Olney where we have experienced a few flat sales jeopardised as a result of short leases. I have received contradictory information from local Olney conveyancing firms. Could you clarify whether the vendor of a flat can initiate 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 start 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 wait 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done prior to, 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.

In relation to leasehold conveyancing in Olney what are the most frequent lease problems?

There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Olney. All leases is drafted differently and drafting errors can sometimes mean that certain provisions are erroneous. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:

• Repairing obligations to or maintain elements of the property
• 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

You may encounter difficulties when selling your property if you have a defective lease primarily because it impacts on the ability to obtain a mortgage on the property. Yorkshire Building Society, Leeds Building Society, and Godiva Mortgages Ltd all have express 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 provide security, obliging the buyer to pull out.

Leasehold Conveyancing in Olney - A selection of Questions you should consider Prior to Purchasing

It would be a good idea to find out if the the lease includes any onerous restrictions in the lease. For instance it is reasonably common in Olney leases that pets are not allowed in certain buildings in Olney. If you like the apartmentin Olney yet your dog is not allowed to make the move with you then you have a very difficult compromise. You should want to discover as much as you can about the managing agents as they will impact your use and enjoyment of the property. As the proprietor of a leasehold property you are frequently at the mercy of the managing agents from a financial perspective and when it comes to practical issues such as the upkeep of the common parts. Enquire of prospective neighbours what they think of their service. On a final note, be sure you discover the dates that the service charges are due to the relevant party and specifically what it includes.