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

There is no doubt about it. A leasehold apartment in Sewardstonebury is a deteriorating asset as a result of the shortening lease. The closer the lease gets to its expiry date, the more it adversely affects the salability of the premises. The majority of buyers and lenders, leases with less than 75 years become less and less marketable. On a more positive note, leaseholders can extend their leases by serving a Section 42 Notice. One stipulation is that they must have owned the premises 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 a residence 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 Sewardstonebury conveyancing experts who will explain the options available to you during an initial telephone conversation free of charge. A more straightforward and quicker method of extending would be to contact your landlord directly and sound him out on the prospect of extending 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 the agreed 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.

Last month I purchased a leasehold property in Sewardstonebury. Do I have any liability for service charges relating to a period prior to completion of my purchase?

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. However, 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 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 employed by a busy estate agency in Sewardstonebury where we see a number of flat sales put at risk as a result of short leases. I have received conflicting advice from local Sewardstonebury conveyancing solicitors. Could you shed some light as to whether the vendor of a flat can initiate the lease extension process 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 commence the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. This means that the proposed purchaser can avoid having to sit tight for 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 simultaneously with completion of the sale.

An alternative approach is to agree the lease extension with the freeholder 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.

Do you have any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Sewardstonebury from the perspective of speeding up the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Sewardstonebury can be reduced if you get in touch lawyers the minute you market your property and ask them to put together the leasehold documentation needed by the purchasers’ solicitors.
• In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s permission? In particular have you laid down wooden flooring? Most leases in Sewardstonebury state that internal structural changes or installing wooden flooring necessitate a licence from the Landlord acquiescing to such changes. Where you fail to have the paperwork to hand you should not contact the landlord without checking with your solicitor before hand.

What makes a Sewardstonebury lease defective?

There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Sewardstonebury. Most leases are unique and legal mistakes in the legal wording can result in certain clauses are wrong. The following missing provisions could result in a defective lease:

• Repairing obligations to or maintain elements of the building
• Insurance obligations
• A provision for the recovery of money spent for the benefit of another party.
• Maintenance charge proportions which don’t add up to the correct percentage

A defective lease can cause issues when trying to sell a property primarily because it impacts on the ability to obtain a mortgage on the property. Birmingham Midshires, Norwich and Peterborough Building Society, and Godiva Mortgages Ltd all have very detailed conveyancing instructions when it comes to what is expected in a lease. Where a lender has been advised by their lawyers that the lease is defective they may refuse to grant the mortgage, obliging the buyer to pull out.

I inherited a ground floor flat in Sewardstonebury, conveyancing was carried out half a dozen years ago. Can you let me have an estimated range of the fair premium for a lease extension? Similar flats in Sewardstonebury with over 90 years remaining are worth £237,000. The ground rent is £65 charged once a year. The lease expires on 21st October 2093

With only 68 years left to run we estimate the price of your lease extension to be between £10,500 and £12,000 as well as professional fees.

The suggested premium range that we have given is a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we are not able to supply a more accurate figure without more comprehensive investigations. Do not use the figures in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There may be additional issues that need to be taken into account and clearly you should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. You should not move forward placing reliance on this information before seeking the advice of a professional.

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Lease Extensions in Sewardstonebury