Fixed-fee leasehold conveyancing in Otley:

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

Otley leasehold conveyancing: Q and A’s

I only have Sixty One years unexpired on my flat in Otley. I now want to extend my lease but my landlord is can not be found. What are my options?

If you qualify, 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 prove that you have made all reasonable attempts to find the landlord. On the whole a specialist may be useful to conduct investigations and to produce an expert document which can be used as proof that the landlord can not be located. It is wise to seek advice from a solicitor in relation to devolving into the landlord’s disappearance and the vesting order request to the County Court overseeing Otley.

Planning to sign contracts shortly on a studio apartment in Otley. Conveyancing lawyers assured me that they will have a report out to me next week. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?

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

  • Details of the parties to the lease, for example these could be the leaseholder (you), head lessor, freeholder
  • The total extent of the property. This will be the property itself but could also incorporate a loft or cellar if applicable.
  • Whether the lease restricts you from renting out the property, or having a home office for business
  • You should have a good understanding of the insurance provisions
  • Repair and maintenance of the flat
  • Whether the landlord has obligations to ensure rights of quiet enjoyment over your property and do you know what it means in practice?
  • What you can do if a neighbour is in violation of a provision in their lease? For a comprehensive list of information to be included in your report on your leasehold property in Otley please ask your conveyancer in ahead of your conveyancing in Otley

    • My wife and I purchased a leasehold flat in Otley. Conveyancing and Bank of Scotland mortgage are in place. A letter has just been received from someone claiming to own the freehold. Attached was a demand for arrears of ground rent dating back to 1998. The conveyancing solicitor in Otley who previously acted has long since retired.Any advice?

    The first thing you should do is contact the Land Registry to be sure that the individual claiming to own the freehold is indeed the new freeholder. You do not need to incur the fees of a Otley conveyancing solicitor to do this as you can do this on the Land Registry website for £3. Rest assured that in any event, even if this is the legitimate freeholder, under the Limitation Act 1980 no more than 6 years of rent can be collected.

    I am employed by a reputable estate agent office in Otley where we see a few leasehold sales jeopardised due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have received contradictory information from local Otley conveyancing firms. Could you confirm whether the seller of a flat can start the lease extension formalities for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

    As long as the seller has owned the lease 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 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 prior to, or simultaneously with 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 purchaser.

    Can you provide any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Otley with the intention of speeding up the sale process?

    • Much of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Otley can be bypassed where you get in touch lawyers as soon as you market your property and ask them to put together the leasehold information which will be required by the purchasers’ lawyers.
    • A minority of Otley leases require Landlord’s consent to the sale and approval of the buyers. If this is the case, you should notify your estate agents to make sure that the purchasers obtain financial (bank) and professional references. Any bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are able to meet the yearly service charge and the actual amount of the service charge should be quoted in the bank’s letter. You will therefore need to provide your estate agents with the service charge figures so that they can pass this information on to the purchasers or their solicitors.
  • If you have had any disputes with your landlord or managing agents it is very important that these are settled prior to the flat being put on the market. The buyers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a flat where there is an ongoing dispute. You may need to swallow your pride and pay any arrears of service charge or settle the dispute prior to the buyers completing the purchase. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled ahead of the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You will still have to reveal particulars of the dispute to the purchasers, but it is clearly preferable to present the dispute as over as opposed to unsettled.
  • If you are supposed to have a share in the freehold, you should make sure that you are holding the original share document. Obtaining a re-issued share certificate is often a time consuming process and frustrates many a Otley home move. Where a new share certificate is required, do contact the company officers or managing agents (if applicable) for this sooner rather than later.
  • You believe that you know the number of years remaining on your lease but you should verify this via your lawyers. A purchaser's lawyer will not be happy to advise their client to to exchange contracts if the lease term is under 75 years. It is therefore important at an early stage that you identify whether the lease term for your property needs extending. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your premises on the market for sale.

    • Otley Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - Examples of Questions you should consider Prior to Purchasing

      What prohibitions are there in the Otley Lease? Does the lease have more than 90 years unexpired? Plenty Otley leasehold flats will be liable to pay a service bill for maintenance of the block levied by the freeholder. If you buy the apartment you will have to meet this liability, usually periodically during the year. This could differ from a couple of hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for buildings with lifts and large communal grounds. There will also be a rentcharge for you to pay annual, ordinarily this is not a exorbitant figure, say around £25-£75 but you need to check it because sometimes it can be prohibitively expensive.

    Other Topics

    Lease Extensions in Otley