I have recently realised that I have Sixty One years remaining on my lease in Pontprennau. I am keen to extend my lease but my freeholder is can not be found. What options are available to me?

If you meet the appropriate requirements, 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 enable the lease to be lengthened by the Court. You will be obliged to demonstrate that you or your lawyers have made all reasonable attempts to find the freeholder. On the whole an enquiry agent should be useful to try and locate and to produce a report to be accepted by the court as evidence that the landlord can not be located. It is advisable to get professional help from a solicitor in relation to devolving into the landlord’s absence and the application to the County Court covering Pontprennau.

I have just started marketing my ground floor apartment in Pontprennau.Conveyancing is yet to be initiated but I have just received a yearly service charge demand – what should I do?

Your conveyancing lawyer is likely to suggest that you should pay 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 management companies will not acknowledge the buyer unless 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 work for a reputable estate agency in Pontprennau where we have witnessed a number of flat sales put at risk due to short leases. I have received contradictory information from local Pontprennau conveyancing solicitors. Could you clarify whether the vendor of a flat can instigate the lease extension process for the buyer?

As long as the seller has been the owner 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. 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 before, or at the same time as 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 top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Pontprennau with the intention of speeding up the sale process?

• Much of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Pontprennau can be avoided if you instruct lawyers as soon as you market your property and request that they start to put together the leasehold information needed by the buyers lawyers.
• The majority landlords or managing agents in Pontprennau levy fees for providing management packs for a leasehold homes. You or your lawyers should find out the fee that they propose to charge. The management pack sought as soon as you have a buyer, thus accelerating the process. The typical amount of time it takes to receive management information is three weeks. It is the most usual cause of frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Pontprennau.

If you have carried out any alterations to the premises would they have required Landlord’s consent? In particular have you installed wooden flooring? Most leases in Pontprennau state that internal structural changes or laying down wooden flooring require a licence from the Landlord acquiescing to such alterations. Should you fail to have the paperwork to hand do not communicate with the landlord without contacting your lawyer before hand.

If there is a history of conflict with your freeholder or managing agents it is very important that these are settled before the property is put on the market. The buyers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a flat where there is a current dispute. You may have to bite the bullet and pay any arrears of service charge or settle the dispute prior to completion of the sale. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled prior to the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You are still duty bound to disclose details of the dispute to the purchasers, but it is better to present the dispute as historic rather than unsettled.

You believe that you know the number of years remaining on your lease but it would be wise to double-check via your solicitors. A buyer’s lawyer will not be happy to advise their client to proceed with the purchase of a leasehold property the lease term is under 80 years. It is therefore essential at an as soon as possible that you consider whether the lease term requires a lease extension. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your home on the market for sale.

Our conveyancer has advised that he intends to complete and exchange simultaneously on the disposal of our £375000 flat in Pontprennau next Tuesday . The freeholder has quoted £312 for Landlord’s certificate, insurance certificate and 3 years service charge statements. Is the landlord entitled to charge an administration fee for a leasehold conveyance in Pontprennau?

For the majority of leasehold sales in Pontprennau conveyancing will involve, queries regarding the management of a building inevitably needing to be answered directly by the freeholder or its agent, this includes :

• Answering pre-contract questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Pontprennau
• Supplying insurance information
• Deeds of covenant upon sale
• Registering of the assignment of the change of lessee after a sale

Your conveyancer will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for Pontprennau leasehold premises is £350. For Pontprennau conveyancing transactions it is customary for the seller to pay for these costs. The landlord or their agents are under no legal obligation to answer such questions most will be willing to do so - albeit often at exorbitant prices where the fees bear little relation to the work involved. Unfortunately there is no law that requires fixed charges for administrative tasks. Neither is there any legal time frame by which they are required to supply the information.

Pontprennau Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - Sample of Questions you should consider before Purchasing

Does the lease include onerous restrictions? How much is the annual maintenance fee and ground rent? In the main the outlay for major works tend not to be wrapped into the maintenance charges, albeit that there some managing agents in Pontprennau ask tenants to pay into a sinking fund created for the specific purpose of establishing a fund for larger repairs or maintenance.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Pontprennau