My husband and I may need to rent out our Sevenoaks garden flat temporarily due to a new job. We used a Sevenoaks conveyancing firm in 2002 but they have closed and we did not have the foresight to get any advice as to whether the lease prohibits the subletting of the flat. How do we find out?

Even though your previous Sevenoaks conveyancing lawyer is not available you can review your lease to check if you are permitted to let out the premises. The accepted inference is that if the deeds are silent, subletting is allowed. Quite often there is a prerequisite that you are obliged to seek consent via your landlord or some other party prior to subletting. This means that you cannot sublet in the absence of first obtaining permission. Such consent should not be unreasonably withheld. If the lease does not allow you to sublet you will need to ask your landlord for their consent.

Last month I purchased a leasehold property in Sevenoaks. Am I liable to pay service charges for periods before my ownership?

In a situation where the service charge has already been demanded from the previous lessee and they have not paid you would not usually be personally liable for the arrears. Strange as it may seem, your landlord may still be able to take action to forfeit the lease. It is an essential part of leasehold conveyancing for your conveyancer to be sure 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).

Do you have any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Sevenoaks with the aim of speeding up the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Sevenoaks can be reduced where you get in touch lawyers the minute you market your property and ask them to collate the leasehold information which will be required by the purchasers’ conveyancers.
• The majority freeholders or Management Companies in Sevenoaks charge for supplying management packs for a leasehold homes. You or your lawyers should enquire as to the actual amount of the charges. The management information sought as soon as you have a buyer, thus reducing delays. The average time it takes to receive management information is three weeks. It is the most usual cause of delay in leasehold conveyancing in Sevenoaks.

If you have carried out any alterations to the residence would they have required Landlord’s permission? Have you, for example installed wooden flooring? Sevenoaks leases often stipulate that internal structural changes or addition of wooden flooring require a licence from the Landlord consenting to such changes. If you fail to have the consents in place you should not communicate with the landlord without contacting your solicitor before hand.

If there is a history of conflict with your freeholder or managing agents it is essential that these are resolved before the property is marketed. The purchasers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a flat where there is a current dispute. You may have to bite the bullet and discharge any arrears of service charge or resolve 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 purchasers, but it is clearly preferable to reveal the dispute as historic as opposed to unresolved.

If you are supposed to have a share in the freehold, you should ensure that you hold the original share document. Arranging a duplicate share certificate is often a lengthy process and slows down many a Sevenoaks home move. If a duplicate share is necessary, do contact the company officers or managing agents (if applicable) for this sooner rather than later.

We expect to complete our sale of a £150000 apartment in Sevenoaks next Monday . The management company has quoted £396 for Certificate of Compliance, insurance certificate and 3 years service charge statements. Is the landlord entitled to charge such fees for a flat conveyance in Sevenoaks?

Sevenoaks conveyancing on leasehold flats normally necessitates fees being levied by management companies :

• Completing conveyancing due diligence enquiries
• Where consent is required before sale in Sevenoaks
• 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 Sevenoaks leasehold premises is £350. For Sevenoaks 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 obliged to provide the information.

What makes a Sevenoaks lease problematic?

There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Sevenoaks. All leases is drafted differently and legal mistakes in the legal wording can sometimes mean that certain sections are not included. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:

• A provision to repair to or maintain parts of the property
• Insurance obligations
• Clauses dealing with recovering service charges for expenditure on the building or common parts.
• Maintenance charge proportions which don’t add up to the correct percentage

You may have a problem when selling your property if you have a defective lease primarily because it impacts on the ability to obtain a mortgage on the property. Barclays , Virgin Money, and Godiva Mortgages Ltd all have express conveyancing instructions when it comes to what is expected in a lease. If a mortgage lender believes that the lease does not cover certain provisions they may refuse to provide security, obliging the purchaser to withdraw.

Leasehold Conveyancing in Sevenoaks - A selection of Questions you should consider Prior to buying

Best to be warned if fixing the lift or some other significant cost is pending that will be shared between the leasehold owners and could well materially increase the the service charges or result in a specific payment. For most Sevenoaks leaseholds the outlay for major works tend not to be included within maintenance charges, albeit that a few managing agents in Sevenoaks require leasehold owners to contribute towards a sinking fund and this is used to offset against major repairs or maintenance. Many Sevenoaks leasehold flats will have a service charge for the upkeep of the block set by the landlord. Where you buy the apartment you will have to meet this contribution, normally quarterly during the year. This may be anything from several hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for large purpose-built buildings. There will also be a ground rent to be met annual, this is usually not a large amount, say around £25-£75 but you need to check it because on occasion it can be surprisingly expensive.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Sevenoaks