Frank (my husband) and I may need to let out our Rise Park basement flat for a while due to taking a sabbatical. We used a Rise Park conveyancing firm in 2004 but they have closed and we did not think at the time seek any guidance as to whether the lease allows us to sublet. How do we find out?

Notwithstanding that your previous Rise Park conveyancing lawyer is not available you can review your lease to see if it allows you to sublet the property. The accepted inference is that if the lease is non-specific, subletting is permitted. Quite often there is a prerequisite that you are obliged to seek consent from your landlord or other appropriate person prior to subletting. The net result is you not allowed to sublet without first obtaining permission. Such consent should not be unreasonably refused ore delayed. If the lease prohibits you from subletting the property you will need to ask your landlord if they are willing to waive this restriction.

Due to complete next month on a leasehold property in Rise Park. Conveyancing lawyers inform me that they are sending me a report within the next couple of days. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?

Your report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in Rise Park should include some of the following:

• The physical extent of the premises. This will be the apartment itself but could also incorporate a loft or cellar if applicable.

I've recently bought a leasehold flat in Rise Park. Do I have any liability for 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).

All being well we will complete the disposal of our £375000 maisonette in Rise Park on Wednesday in a week. The landlords agents has quoted £420 for Certificate of Compliance, insurance certificate and 3 years service charge statements. Is the landlord entitled to charge such fees for a flat conveyance in Rise Park?

Rise Park conveyancing on leasehold maisonettes usually involves the buyer’s solicitor submitting enquiries for the landlord to address. Although the landlord is under no legal obligation to address these enquiries most will be willing to assist. They may levy a reasonable administration fee for responding to questions or supplying documentation. There is no upper cap for such fees. The average fee for the information that you are referring to is over three hundred pounds, in some transactions it is above £800. The management information fee levied by the landlord must be sent together with a synopsis of entitlements and obligations in relation to administration charges, otherwise the charge is not strictly payable. In reality one has no option but to pay whatever is requested of you if you want to complete the sale of your home.

Following years of negotiations we simply can't agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in Rise Park. Can we issue an application to the Residential Property Tribunal Service?

Most definitely. We are happy to put you in touch with a Rise Park conveyancing firm who can help.

An example of a Lease Extension case for a Rise Park property is Flat b 14 Kemble Road in May 2014. The Tribunal assessed the value of the premium payable for the lease extension to be £9,761 This case affected 1 flat.

What makes a Rise Park lease unacceptable for security purposes?

There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Rise Park. All leases is drafted differently and legal mistakes in the legal wording can result in certain provisions are wrong. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:

• Repairing obligations to or maintain parts of the premises
• Insurance obligations
• Clauses dealing with recovering service charges for expenditure on the building or common parts.
• Maintenance charge proportions which don’t add up to the correct percentage

You may encounter difficulties when selling your property if you have a defective lease as they can affect a potential buyer’s ability to obtain a mortgage. Lloyds TSB Bank, Leeds Building Society, and Nottingham Building Society all have very detailed conveyancing instructions when it comes to what is expected in a lease. If a mortgage lender believes that the lease is problematic they may refuse to provide security, obliging the purchaser to pull out.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Rise Park