Frank (my husband) and I may need to sub-let our Ottery St Mary ground floor flat temporarily due to taking a sabbatical. We used a Ottery St Mary conveyancing firm in 2001 but they have closed and we did not think at the time seek any advice as to whether the lease prohibits the subletting of the flat. How do we find out?

Notwithstanding that your previous Ottery St Mary conveyancing lawyer is no longer available you can review your lease to see if it allows you to sublet the premises. The rule is that if the lease is non-specific, subletting is allowed. Quite often there is a prerequisite that you are obliged to obtain permission via your landlord or other appropriate person in advance of subletting. The net result is you not allowed to sublet in the absence of prior consent. Such consent must not not be unreasonably refused ore delayed. If the lease prohibits you from letting out the property you will need to ask your landlord for their consent.

I am attracted to a couple of maisonettes in Ottery St Mary both have about 50 years remaining on the leases. should I be concerned?

A lease is a legal document that entitles you to use the premises for a prescribed time frame. As a lease gets shorter the saleability of the lease reduces and it becomes more costly to acquire a lease extension. For this reason it is often a good idea to increase the term of the lease. Sometimes it is difficult to sell a property with a short lease because mortgage companies less inclined to grant a loan on properties of this type. Lease enfranchisement can be a protracted process. We recommend you seek professional assistance from a conveyancer and surveyor with experience in this arena

Last month I purchased a leasehold house in Ottery St Mary. Am I liable to pay service charges relating to a period prior to my ownership?

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. It is an essential part 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 work for a long established estate agent office in Ottery St Mary where we have witnessed a number of flat sales put at risk as a result of short leases. I have been given inconsistent advice from local Ottery St Mary conveyancing solicitors. Please can you confirm whether the owner of a flat can instigate the lease extension formalities for the buyer?

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. The benefit of this is that the buyer need not have to sit tight for 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 Ottery St Mary what are the most frequent lease defects?

Leasehold conveyancing in Ottery St Mary is not unique. All leases are individual and legal mistakes in the legal wording can result in certain provisions are missing. The following missing provisions could result in a defective lease:

• A provision to repair to or maintain elements of the property
• A duty to insure the building
• 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

You will encounter a problem when selling your property if you have a defective lease as they can affect a potential buyer’s ability to obtain a mortgage. Birmingham Midshires, Skipton Building Society, and Clydesdale 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 grant the mortgage, forcing the buyer to pull out.

Leasehold Conveyancing in Ottery St Mary - Examples of Questions you should ask Prior to buying

Best to be warned if fixing the lift or some other major work is pending that will be shared amongst the tenants and will dramatically impact the level of the service fees or necessitate a one time invoice. Is anyone aware of any major works anticipated that will add a premium to the maintenance fees? What is the length of the lease?

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Ottery St Mary