Having had my offer accepted I require leasehold conveyancing in Rowley Regis. Before I get started I require certainty as to the unexpired term of the lease.

If the lease is recorded at the land registry - and almost all are in Rowley Regis - then the leasehold title will always include the short particulars 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 have just appointed agents to market my 2 bed apartment in Rowley Regis.Conveyancing lawyers have not yet been instructed but I have just received a quarterly maintenance charge invoice – should I leave it to the buyer to sort out?

The sensible thing to do is clear the invoice 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 busy estate agency in Rowley Regis where we see a few flat sales derailed as a result of leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given inconsistent advice from local Rowley Regis conveyancing solicitors. Please can you shed some light as to whether the owner of a flat can commence the lease extension formalities 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 kick-start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. The benefit of this is that the proposed purchaser need not have to wait 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done before, or at the same time as completion of the sale.

An alternative approach is to extend the lease informally by agreement with the landlord 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 advice for leasehold conveyancing in Rowley Regis with the aim of expediting the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Rowley Regis can be bypassed where you instruct lawyers as soon as your agents start marketing the property and request that they start to put together the leasehold information which will be required by the purchasers’ representatives.
• If you have carried out any alterations to the residence would they have required Landlord’s approval? In particular have you installed wooden flooring? Most leases in Rowley Regis state that internal structural alterations or installing wooden flooring necessitate a licence issued by the Landlord consenting to such works. If you dont have the paperwork to hand you should not communicate with the landlord without checking with your solicitor in advance.

A minority of Rowley Regis leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. 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 should make it clear that the buyer is 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 actual amount of the service charge so that they can pass this information on to the buyers or their lawyers.

If you have had any disputes with your landlord or managing agents it is very important that these are settled prior to the flat being marketed. The purchasers and their solicitors will be warry about purchasing a flat where there is a current dispute. You will have to accept that you will have to 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 better to reveal the dispute as historic rather than unresolved.

If you are supposed to have a share in the freehold, you should make sure that you hold the original share certificate. Organising a new share certificate can be a time consuming process and delays many a Rowley Regis home move. If a new share certificate is required, you should approach the company officers or managing agents (where applicable) for this at the earliest opportunity.

If all goes to plan we aim to complete the sale of our £450000 flat in Rowley Regis in just under a week. The freeholder has quoted £348 for Certificate of Compliance, building insurance schedule and 3 years statements of service charge. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge an administration fee for a flat conveyance in Rowley Regis?

Rowley Regis conveyancing on leasehold maisonettes typically involves fees being levied by landlords agents :

• Completing conveyancing due diligence questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Rowley Regis
• Copies of the building insurance and schedule
• 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 Rowley Regis leasehold property is £350. For Rowley Regis 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 provide answers.

Rowley Regis Leasehold Conveyancing - Examples of Questions you should ask Prior to Purchasing

Please note that where the lease has fewer than eighty years it will impact the salability of the flat. It is worth checking with your bank that they are willing to go ahead with the loan given the lease term. Leases with less than 80 years remaining means that you will probably require a lease extension sooner rather than later and it is worth discovering what this would cost. For most Rowley Regislease extensions you would be required to have owned the residence for 24 months before you are legally able to carry out a lease extension. Many Rowley Regis leasehold properties will incur a service bill for maintenance of the block invoiced by the management company. Where you purchase the flat you will have to meet this liability, normally in instalments during the year. This can differ from several hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for large purpose-built blocks. There will also be a ground rent to be met annual, this is usually not a exorbitant figure, say approximately £25-£75 but you need to check as on occasion it can be many hundreds of pounds. It is important to be aware whether redecorating or some other major work is pending to be shared by the tenants and will dramatically impact the level of the maintenance costs or require a one time invoice.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Rowley Regis