I am hoping to exchange soon on a studio apartment in Sawtry. Conveyancing lawyers have said that they are sending me a report next week. What should I be looking out for?

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

• You should be sent a copy of the lease

The length of the lease term You should be advised as what happens when the lease ends, and aware of the importance of the 80 year mark

Whether the lease restricts you from letting out the property, or having a home office for business

Changes to the flat (alterations and additions)

The landlord’s obligations to repair and maintain the building. It is important that you know who is responsible for the repair and maintenance of every part of the building

What options are open to you if a neighbour breach a clause of their lease?

What the implications are if you breach a clause of your lease? For a comprehensive list of information to be included in your report on your leasehold property in Sawtry please ask your lawyer in ahead of your conveyancing in Sawtry

I work for a long established estate agent office in Sawtry where we have witnessed a few flat sales put at risk as a result of short leases. I have been given conflicting advice from local Sawtry conveyancing solicitors. Can you shed some light as to whether the seller of a flat can commence the lease extension formalities for the buyer?

Provided that the seller has been the owner for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to start 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 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.

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 purchaser.

Can you offer any advice when it comes to appointing a Sawtry conveyancing practice to carry out our lease extension conveyancing?

If you are instructing a property lawyer for your lease extension (regardless if they are a Sawtry conveyancing practice) it is most important that they be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of conveyancing. We recommend that you talk with several firms including non Sawtry conveyancing practices prior to instructing a firm. Where the conveyancing practice is ALEP accredited then so much the better. Some following of questions could be useful:

• If the firm is not ALEP accredited then why not?

Can they put you in touch with client in Sawtry who can give a testimonial?

Do you have any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Sawtry from the point of view of saving time on the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Sawtry can be bypassed if you instruct lawyers the minute your agents start marketing the property and ask them to put together the leasehold documentation needed by the buyers lawyers.
• Many landlords or managing agents in Sawtry charge for supplying management packs for a leasehold homes. You or your lawyers should discover the fee that they propose to charge. The management pack can be applied for as soon as you have a buyer, thus accelerating the process. The average time it takes to receive management information is three weeks. It is the most common cause of frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Sawtry.

If you have had any disputes with your freeholder or managing agents it is very important that these are settled prior to the flat being marketed. The purchasers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase 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 will still have to reveal particulars of the dispute to the buyers, but it is better to present the dispute as over as opposed to unresolved.

If you have the benefit of shareholding in the freehold, you should ensure that you have the original share document. Organising a new share certificate can be a time consuming process and slows down many a Sawtry home move. If a duplicate share certificate is necessary, do contact the company director and secretary or managing agents (if relevant) for this as soon as possible.

You believe that you know the number of years remaining on your lease but you should verify this via your lawyers. A buyer’s conveyancer will not be happy to advise their client to proceed with the purchase of a leasehold property the remaining number of years is less than 80 years. It is therefore 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 home on the market for sale.

We expect to complete the sale of our £275000 garden flat in Sawtry on Friday in a week. The freeholder has quoted £324 for Certificate of Compliance, building insurance schedule and previous years service charge statements. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge such fees for a flat conveyance in Sawtry?

Sawtry conveyancing on leasehold flats normally results in fees being invoiced by management companies :

• Answering conveyancing due diligence enquiries
• Where consent is required before sale in Sawtry
• 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 Sawtry leasehold premises is £350. For Sawtry 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 supply answers.

Leasehold Conveyancing in Sawtry - A selection of Questions you should consider before buying

What is the name of the managing agents? Its a good idea to find out as much as possible about the managing agents as they will either make your life much easier or uncomfortable. Being a leasehold owner you are often in the clutches of the managing agents from a financial perspective and when it comes to day to day issues like the upkeep of the common parts. Ask other tenants what they think of them. On a final note, investigate as to the dates that the service charges are due to the relevant party and specifically what you get for your money. Where a Sawtry lease has no more than eighty years it will impact the salability of the apartment. It is worth checking with your bank that they are willing to to proceed given the lease term. A short lease 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 would cost. Remember, in most cases you will be be obliged to have been the owner of the premises for a couple of years in order to be eligible to exercise a lease extension.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Sawtry