Due to exchange soon on a basement flat in Sale. Conveyancing solicitors have said 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?

The report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in Sale should include some of the following:

• Setting out your legal entitlements in relation to common areas in the building.By way of example, does the lease include a right of way over a path or hallways?
• Do you need to have carpet in the flat or are you allowed wood flooring?
• Whether the lease restricts you from subletting the property, or having a home office for business
• Changes to the flat (alterations and additions)
• Whether the landlord has obligations to ensure rights of quiet enjoyment over your premises and do you know what it means in practice?
• What the implications are if you breach a clause of your lease?

Estate agents have just been given the go-ahead to market my ground floor apartment in Sale.Conveyancing solicitors are to be appointed soon but I have just had a half-yearly service charge demand – what should I do?

The sensible thing to do is discharge the service charge 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 managing agents 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.

My wife and I purchased a leasehold flat in Sale. Conveyancing and Virgin Money mortgage went though with no issue. A letter has just been received from someone claiming to own the freehold. Attached was a ground rent demand for rent dating back to 1992. The conveyancing solicitor in Sale who previously acted has now retired.What should I do?

The first thing you should do is contact HMLR to make sure that this person is indeed the new freeholder. It is not necessary to instruct a Sale conveyancing firm to do this as you can do this on the Land Registry website for £3. You should note that in any event, even if this is the rightful landlord, under the Limitation Act 1980 no more than 6 years of rent can be collected.

I am attracted to a two flats in Sale both have in the region of forty five years unexpired on the lease term. Will this present a problem?

There are no two ways about it. A leasehold apartment in Sale is a deteriorating asset as a result of the shortening lease. The closer the lease gets to zero years unexpired, the more it adversely affects the salability of the premises. The majority of buyers and banks, leases with under eighty years become less and less marketable. On a more upbeat note, leaseholders can extend their leases by serving a Section 42 Notice. One stipulation is that they must have owned the property for two years (unlike a Section 13 notice for purchasing the freehold, when leaseholders can participate from day one of ownership). When successful, they will have the right to an extension of 90 years to the current term and ground rent is effectively reduced to zero. Before moving forward with a purchase of property with a short lease term remaining you should talk to a solicitor specialising in lease extensions and leasehold enfranchisement. We are are happy to put you in touch with Sale conveyancing experts who will explain the options available to you during an initial telephone conversation free of charge. More often than not it is possible to negotiate informally with the freeholder to extend the lease You may find he or she is happy to negotiate informally and willing to consider your offer straight off, without having to involve anyone else. This will save you time and money and it could help you reach a lower price on the lease. You need to ensure that any new terms represent good long-term value compared with the standard benefits of the Section 42 Notice and that onerous clauses are not inserted into any redrafting of the lease.

I am employed by a long established estate agent office in Sale where we see a few flat sales jeopardised due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have received inconsistent advice from local Sale conveyancing solicitors. Could you confirm whether the owner of a flat can instigate the lease extension formalities 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 proposed purchaser can avoid having to wait 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed prior to, or at the same time as completion of the sale.

Alternatively, it may be possible 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.

Sale Leasehold Conveyancing - Sample of Queries before buying

What prohibitions are contained in the Sale Lease? It is important to be aware whether changing the roof or some other major work is coming up to be shared amongst the tenants and will dramatically impact the level of the maintenance charges or necessitate a specific payment.