Back In 2001, I bought a leasehold flat in Potton. Conveyancing and Alliance & Leicester mortgage organised. A letter has just been received from someone claiming to own the reversionary interest in the property. It included a demand for arrears of ground rent dating back to 1991. The conveyancing practitioner in Potton who acted for me is not around.Any advice?

The first thing you should do is contact the Land Registry to make sure that this person is indeed the new freeholder. You do not need to instruct a Potton conveyancing lawyer 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 landlord, under the Limitation Act 1980 the limitation period for recovery of ground rent is six years.

Last month I purchased a leasehold property in Potton. Do I have any liability for service charges for periods before my ownership?

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. However, your landlord may still be able to take action to forfeit the lease. A critical element 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 am a negotiator for a busy estate agency in Potton where we have experienced a number of leasehold sales jeopardised due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given conflicting advice from local Potton conveyancing solicitors. Can you shed some light as to whether the seller of a flat can instigate 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 commence the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. The benefit of this is that the buyer can avoid having to sit tight for 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done before, or simultaneously with completion of the disposal of the property.

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.

All being well we will complete our sale of a £475000 garden flat in Potton on Monday in a week. The management company has quoted £360 for Certificate of Compliance, building insurance schedule and previous years statements of service charge. Is the landlord entitled to charge such fees for a leasehold conveyance in Potton?

Potton conveyancing on leasehold maisonettes usually requires the buyer’s conveyancer submitting questions for the landlord to address. Although the landlord is not legally bound to answer these enquiries the majority will be content to assist. They may charge a reasonable administration fee for responding to enquiries or supplying documentation. There is no set fee. The average fee for the information that you are referring to is £350, in some cases it is in excess of £800. The administration charge levied by the landlord must be accompanied by a summary of entitlements and obligations in respect of administration charges, without which the invoice is technically not due. Reality however dictates that you have no option but to pay whatever is requested of you should you wish to complete the sale of your home.

In relation to leasehold conveyancing in Potton what are the most common lease problems?

There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Potton. Most leases are individual and drafting errors can result in certain clauses are erroneous. The following missing provisions could result in a defective lease:

• A provision to repair to or maintain elements of the building
• A duty to insure the building
• Clauses dealing with recovering service charges for expenditure on the building or common parts.
• Service charge per centages that don't add up correctly leaving a shortfall

You will have a problem when selling your property if you have a defective lease primarily because it impacts on the ability to obtain a mortgage on the property. Accord Mortgages Ltd, The Royal Bank of Scotland, and Alliance & Leicester all have very detailed conveyancing instructions when it comes to what is expected in a lease. Where a lender has been advised by their lawyers that the lease does not cover certain provisions they may refuse to grant the mortgage, obliging the buyer to pull out.

I invested in buying a studio flat in Potton, conveyancing formalities finalised 2008. Can you let me have an estimate of the premium that my landlord can legally expect in return for granting a renewal of my lease? Similar properties in Potton with a long lease are worth £245,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £55 invoiced annually. The lease comes to an end on 21st October 2080

With only 57 years unexpired we estimate the price of your lease extension to be between £22,800 and £26,400 plus professional fees.

The suggested premium range above a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we are not able to supply a more accurate figure in the absence of comprehensive investigations. You should not use the figures in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There may be additional concerns that need to be taken into account and clearly you should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. You should not take any other action based on this information without first getting professional advice.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Potton