My wife and I may need to rent out our Princes Risborough garden flat for a while due to a new job. We instructed a Princes Risborough conveyancing firm in 2001 but they have since shut and we did not think at the time seek any guidance as to whether the lease permits subletting. How do we find out?

The lease governs the relationship between the landlord and you the flat owner; specifically, it will indicate if subletting is not allowed, or permitted but only subject to certain caveats. The rule is that if the lease contains no specific ban or restriction, subletting is permitted. The majority of leases in Princes Risborough do not contain an absolute prevention of subletting – such a clause would undoubtedly devalue the flat. Instead, there is usually a basic requirement that the owner notifies the freeholder, possibly sending a copy of the sublease.

I've recently bought a leasehold flat in Princes Risborough. Am I liable to pay service charges relating to a period prior to completion of my purchase?

Where the service charge has already been demanded from the previous lessee 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 employed by a long established estate agent office in Princes Risborough where we have witnessed a few flat sales derailed as a result of leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given conflicting advice from local Princes Risborough conveyancing firms. Could you clarify whether the seller of a flat can initiate the lease extension process for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

Provided that the seller has been the owner 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 need not have to sit tight for 2 years for a lease extension. 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.

An alternative approach is 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 Princes Risborough from the point of view of saving time on the sale process?

• Much of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Princes Risborough can be reduced where you get in touch lawyers as soon as your agents start marketing the property and ask them to put together the leasehold documentation which will be required by the purchasers’ solicitors.
• If you have carried out any alterations to the residence would they have required Landlord’s consent? Have you, for example laid down wooden flooring? Most leases in Princes Risborough state that internal structural changes or addition of wooden flooring require a licence from the Landlord consenting to such alterations. Where you fail to have the paperwork to hand you should not communicate with the landlord without checking with your conveyancer in the first instance.

Some Princes Risborough leases require Landlord’s consent to the sale and approval of the buyers. If this applies to your lease, you should notify your estate agents to make sure that the purchasers put in hand financial (bank) and professional references. Any bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are able to meet the yearly service charge and the actual amount of the service charge should be quoted in the bank’s letter. You will therefore need to provide your estate agents with the service charge figures so that they can pass this information on to the purchasers or their solicitors.

If you have had any disputes with your landlord or managing agents it is very important that these are resolved before the property is marketed. The buyers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a property where there is an ongoing dispute. You may need to swallow your pride 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 will still have to reveal particulars of the dispute to the purchasers, but it is clearly preferable to reveal the dispute as over as opposed to unsettled.

You may think that you are aware of the number of years left on your lease but you should double-check by asking your lawyers. A buyer’s lawyer will not be happy to advise their client to proceed with the purchase of a leasehold property the remaining number of years is below 80 years. In the circumstances it is important at an as soon as possible that you consider whether the lease term 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 our sale of a £250000 apartment in Princes Risborough next week. The freeholder has quoted £348 for Certificate of Compliance, insurance certificate and previous years statements of service charge. Is the landlord entitled to charge exorbitant fees for a leasehold conveyance in Princes Risborough?

Princes Risborough conveyancing on leasehold maisonettes normally results in fees being levied by landlords agents :

• Completing conveyancing due diligence questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Princes Risborough
• 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 Princes Risborough leasehold property is £350. For Princes Risborough 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 obliged to provide answers.

Princes Risborough Leasehold Conveyancing - Sample of Queries Prior to Purchasing

How is the lease structured? If a Princes Risborough lease has no more than eighty years it will have adverse implications on the marketability of the flat. It is worth checking with your bank that they are happy with remaining years on the lease. Leases with fewer than 80 years remaining means that you will almost definitely have to extend the lease sooner rather than later and you need to have some idea of how much this will be. Remember, in most cases you will be be obliged to have been the owner of the property for 24 months in order to be eligible to extend the lease. Best to be warned whether changing the roof or some other major work is due shortly that will be shared between the leaseholders and may well dramatically impact the level of the service charges or require a one off invoice.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Princes Risborough