Fixed-fee leasehold conveyancing in Penmaenmawr:

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

Penmaenmawr leasehold conveyancing: Q and A’s

I’m about to sell my garden apartment in Penmaenmawr.Conveyancing is yet to be initiated but I have just received a quarterly service charge demand – Do I pay up?

Your conveyancing lawyer is likely to suggest that you should discharge 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 until 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. This will smooth the conveyancing process.

I am attracted to a couple of apartments in Penmaenmawr which have in the region of forty five years unexpired on the lease term. Should I regard a short lease as a deal breaker?

A lease is a right to use the property for a prescribed time frame. As a lease gets shorter the saleability of the lease reduces and results in it becoming more costly to extend the lease. For this reason it is advisable to extend the lease term. It is often difficult to sell a property with a short lease as mortgage companies less inclined to grant a loan on such properties. Lease extension can be a protracted process. We recommend you get professional help from a conveyancer and surveyor with experience in this arena

I am a negotiator for a long established estate agent office in Penmaenmawr where we see a number of flat sales jeopardised due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given inconsistent advice from local Penmaenmawr conveyancing firms. Could you clarify whether the owner 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 start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. The benefit of this is that the proposed purchaser 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 before, or simultaneously with completion of the disposal of the property.

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 advice can you give us when it comes to appointing a Penmaenmawr conveyancing practice to deal with our lease extension?

If you are instructing a property lawyer for your lease extension (regardless if they are a Penmaenmawr conveyancing firm) it is imperative that they be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of conveyancing. We suggested that you speak with two or three firms including non Penmaenmawr conveyancing practices prior to instructing a firm. If the firm is ALEP accredited then that’s a bonus. Some following of questions could be helpful:

  • What volume of lease extensions have they carried out in Penmaenmawr in the last year?
  • What are the costs for lease extension conveyancing?

    • Can you provide any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Penmaenmawr from the point of view of speeding up the sale process?

    • Much of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Penmaenmawr can be reduced where you get in touch lawyers as soon as you market your property and ask them to collate the leasehold information needed by the purchasers’ representatives.
    • Many landlords or Management Companies in Penmaenmawr charge for providing management packs for a leasehold homes. You or your lawyers should find out the fee that they propose to charge. The management information can be applied for on or before finding a buyer, thus reducing delays. The average time it takes to receive management information is three weeks. It is the most usual cause of delay in leasehold conveyancing in Penmaenmawr.
  • In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s consent? Have you, for example installed wooden flooring? Penmaenmawr leases often stipulate that internal structural alterations or laying down wooden flooring calls for a licence from the Landlord acquiescing to such alterations. Where you fail to have the paperwork in place you should not contact the landlord without checking with your solicitor in advance.
  • If you have had any disputes with your freeholder or managing agents it is very important that these are settled prior to the flat being marketed. The purchasers and their solicitors will be concerned about purchasing a property 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 the buyers completing the purchase. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled prior to 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 reveal the dispute as over rather than ongoing.
  • You believe that you know the number of years left on your lease but it would be advisable double-check by asking your solicitors. A buyer’s lawyer will not be happy to advise their client to where the lease term is less than 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.

    • Penmaenmawr Leasehold Conveyancing - A selection of Queries Prior to buying

      Plenty Penmaenmawr leasehold flats will have a service charge for the upkeep of the building levied on behalf of the landlord. Where you purchase the flat you will have to meet this charge, usually quarterly during the year. This could vary from two or three hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for blocks with lifts and large common areas. In all probability there will be a ground rent to be met annual, this is usually not a significant sum, say about £50-£100 but you need to enquire it because occasionally it could be many hundreds of pounds. For most Penmaenmawr leaseholds the outlay for major works tend not to be incorporated into the service charges, although there some managing agents in Penmaenmawr ask leasehold owners to pay into a sinking fund created for the specific intention of building a fund for larger repairs or maintenance. Who manages the building?

    Other Topics

    Lease Extensions in Penmaenmawr