I am on look out for some leasehold conveyancing in Rye. Before diving in I would like to find out the remaining lease term.

If the lease is registered - and almost all are in Rye - 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 only have 72 years left on my lease in Rye. I now want to get lease extension but my landlord is absent. What options are available to me?

On the basis that you qualify, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can submit an application to the County Court for an order to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will enable the lease to be granted an extra 90 years by the Court. You will be obliged to prove that you or your lawyers have used your best endeavours to locate the lessor. In some cases a specialist may be useful to try and locate and prepare a report which can be accepted by the court as evidence that the landlord is indeed missing. It is wise to seek advice from a conveyancer in relation to investigating the landlord’s absence and the application to the County Court covering Rye.

I am attracted to a couple of apartments in Rye which have in the region of fifty years remaining on the lease term. Will this present a problem?

There are plenty of short leases in Rye. The lease is a right to use the premises for a prescribed time frame. As the lease shortens the value of the lease reduces and results in it becoming more costly to extend the lease. For this reason it is generally wise to extend the lease term. More often than not it is difficult to sell a property with a short lease because mortgage lenders less inclined to grant a loan on such properties. Lease enfranchisement can be a difficult process. We recommend you get professional assistance from a conveyancer and surveyor with experience in this area

What advice can you give us when it comes to choosing a Rye conveyancing firm to carry out our lease extension conveyancing?

If you are instructing a conveyancer for lease extension works (regardless if they are a Rye conveyancing firm) it is imperative that he or she should be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of work. We suggested that you talk with two or three firms including non Rye conveyancing practices before you instructing a firm. Where the conveyancing practice is ALEP accredited then that’s a bonus. Some following of questions could be useful:

• How many lease extensions has the firm conducted in Rye in the last twenty four months?

What are the charges for lease extension work?

Our conveyancer has advised that he intends to complete and exchange simultaneously on our sale of a £250000 maisonette in Rye next week. The landlords agents has quoted £360 for Certificate of Compliance, insurance certificate and previous years statements of service charge. Is the landlord entitled to charge an administration fee for a flat conveyance in Rye?

For most leasehold sales in Rye conveyancing will involve, queries regarding the management of a building inevitably needing to be answered directly by the freeholder or its agent, this includes :

• Completing conveyancing due diligence questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Rye
• Supplying insurance information
• Deeds of covenant upon sale
• Registering of the assignment of the change of lessee after a sale

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

Rye Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - Examples of Queries before Purchasing

The answer will be important as a) areas can result in problems in the block as the common areas may start to deteriorate where maintenance are not paid for b) if the leasehold owners have an issue with the running of the building you will want to have complete disclosure Is there a share of the freehold? Plenty Rye leasehold apartments will have a service bill for maintenance of the building invoiced by the freeholder. Where you acquire the flat you will have to pay this charge, usually quarterly throughout the year. This can vary from two or three hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for bigger purpose-built blocks. In all likelihood there will be a rentcharge to be met annual, this is usually not a significant amount, say about £25-£75 but you should to check as sometimes it could be many hundreds of pounds.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Rye