I am attracted to a two apartments in Selsey both have about fifty years left on the lease term. Should I regard a short lease as a deal breaker?

There are plenty of short leases in Selsey. The lease is a right to use the property for a prescribed time frame. As the lease gets shorter the saleability of the lease reduces and it becomes more costly to acquire a lease extension. For this reason it is often a good idea to extend the lease term. Sometimes it is difficulties arise selling premises with a short lease as mortgage companies may be unwilling to lend money on properties of this type. Lease extension can be a protracted process. We advise that you seek professional help from a conveyancer and surveyor with experience in this area

I've recently bought a leasehold house in Selsey. Do I have any liability for service charges relating to a period prior to 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. However, your landlord may still be able to take action to forfeit the lease. A critical element of leasehold conveyancing for your conveyancer to ensure 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).

I am a negotiator for a long established estate agency in Selsey where we have experienced a number of leasehold sales put at risk due to short leases. I have received contradictory information from local Selsey conveyancing firms. Can you shed some light as to whether the seller of a flat can initiate the lease extension process for the buyer?

As long as the seller has owned the lease 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 can avoid having to sit tight for 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done prior to, or at the same time as completion of the disposal of the property.

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 Selsey with the purpose of saving time on the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Selsey can be bypassed if you appoint lawyers as soon as you market your property and ask them to collate the leasehold documentation which will be required by the purchasers’ representatives.
• The majority landlords or Management Companies in Selsey levy fees for providing management packs for a leasehold premises. You or your lawyers should find out the actual amount of the charges. The management pack sought as soon as you have a buyer, thus accelerating the process. The average time it takes to obtain the necessary information is three weeks. It is the most usual cause of delay in leasehold conveyancing in Selsey.

If there is a history of conflict with your freeholder or managing agents it is essential that these are settled before the property is put on the market. The purchasers and their solicitors will be concerned about purchasing a property where a dispute is unresolved. You may have to bite the bullet and 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 prior to the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You are still duty bound to disclose details of the dispute to the purchasers, but it is clearly preferable to present the dispute as historic rather than unresolved.

If you are supposed to have a share in the freehold, you should make sure that you have the original share certificate. Arranging a re-issued share certificate can be a time consuming formality and frustrates many a Selsey home move. If a reissued share is required, you should approach the company officers or managing agents (if relevant) for this at the earliest opportunity.

You may think that you are aware of the number of years left on your lease but it would be wise to verify this by asking your solicitors. A buyer’s conveyancer will be unlikely to recommend their client to proceed with the purchase of a leasehold property the lease term is below 80 years. In the circumstances it is essential at an early stage that you identify whether the lease term for your property needs extending. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your premises on the market for sale.

Our conveyancer has advised that he intends to complete and exchange simultaneously on our sale of a £425000 flat in Selsey in nine days. The managing agents has quoted £324 for Landlord’s certificate, insurance certificate and previous years service charge statements. Is the landlord entitled to charge such fees for a leasehold conveyance in Selsey?

For the majority of leasehold sales in Selsey conveyancing will involve, questions about the management of a building inevitably needing to be answered directly by the freeholder or its agent, this includes :

• Completing pre-contract questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Selsey
• 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 lawyer will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for Selsey leasehold property is £350. For Selsey 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.

Selsey Leasehold Conveyancing - Examples of Queries before buying

Who is in charge of the block? How many years remain on the lease? Can you inform me if there are any major works anticipated that will increase the maintenance costs?

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Selsey