I am in need of some leasehold conveyancing in Poynton. Before I get started I require certainty as to the number of years remaining on the lease.

If the lease is registered - and most are in Poynton - then the leasehold title will always include the basic details of the lease, namely the date; the term; and the original parties. From a conveyancing perspective such details then enable any prospective buyer and lender to confirm that any lease they are looking at is the one relevant to that title.For any other purpose, such as confirming how long the term was granted for and calculating what is left, then the register should be sufficient on it's own.

I've recently bought a leasehold house in Poynton. Am I liable to pay service charges for periods before completion of my purchase?

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. A critical element of leasehold conveyancing for your conveyancer to be sure 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 reputable estate agent office in Poynton where we see a number of flat sales put at risk as a result of short leases. I have received contradictory information from local Poynton conveyancing solicitors. Please can you clarify whether the seller of a flat can commence the lease extension formalities for the buyer?

Provided that 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 proposed purchaser can avoid having 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 before, or simultaneously with 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.

Do you have any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Poynton from the point of view of speeding up the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Poynton can be bypassed where you get in touch lawyers the minute you market your property and request that they start to collate the leasehold documentation needed by the buyers lawyers.
• If you have carried out any alterations to the premises would they have required Landlord’s approval? In particular have you installed wooden flooring? Poynton leases often stipulate that internal structural changes or addition of wooden flooring calls for a licence from the Landlord approving such alterations. Should you dont have the paperwork in place you should not contact the landlord without checking with your lawyer before hand.

If you have had conflict with your landlord or managing agents it is very important that these are resolved prior to the flat being marketed. 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 discharge 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 are still duty bound to disclose details of the dispute to the buyers, but it is clearly preferable to reveal the dispute as over as opposed to unsettled.

If you hold a share in a the Management Company, you should ensure that you hold the original share certificate. Organising a replacement share certificate can be a time consuming process and frustrates many a Poynton home move. If a duplicate share is necessary, do contact the company officers or managing agents (where applicable) for this at the earliest opportunity.

You may think that you are aware of the number of years left on your lease but it would be advisable verify this via your lawyers. A purchaser's lawyer will not be happy to advise their client to where the remaining number of years is under 75 years. In the circumstances it is important at an as soon as possible that you identify whether the lease for your property needs extending. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your property on the market for sale.

We expect to complete the sale of our £450000 flat in Poynton next Monday . The management company has quoted £408 for Certificate of Compliance, building insurance schedule and 3 years statements of service charge. Is the landlord entitled to charge exorbitant fees for a leasehold conveyance in Poynton?

Poynton conveyancing on leasehold flats typically results in administration charges invoiced by managing agents :

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

Your solicitor will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for Poynton leasehold property is £350. For Poynton 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.

Poynton Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - A selection of Queries before Purchasing

The best form of lease structure is if the freehold reversion is in the ownership of the leaseholders. In this arrangement the tenants have being in charge if their destiny and although a managing agent is frequently employed where it is larger than a house conversion, the managing agent acts for the leaseholders themselves. How is the lease structured? Please note that where the lease has no more than 80 years it will affect the value of the property. Check with your mortgage company that they are content with remaining years on the lease. A short lease means that you will most likely need a lease extension sooner rather than later and you need to have some idea of what this will be. Remember, in most cases you would be required to have been the owner of the residence for a couple of years before you are entitled to extend the lease.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Poynton