Having had my offer accepted I require leasehold conveyancing in Shillington. Before I get started I require certainty as to the remaining lease term.

Assuming the lease is recorded at the land registry - and most are in Shillington - then the leasehold title will always include the short particulars of the lease, namely the date; the term; and the original parties. From a conveyancing perspective such details then enable any prospective buyer and lender to confirm that any lease they are looking at is the one relevant to that title.For any other purpose, such as confirming how long the term was granted for and calculating what is left, then the register should be sufficient on it's own.

I would like to rent out my leasehold apartment in Shillington. Conveyancing solicitor who did the purchase is retired - so can't ask her. Do I need to ask my freeholder for their consent?

A small minority of properties in Shillington do contain a provision to say that subletting is only permitted with prior consent from the landlord. The landlord cannot unreasonably refuse but, in such cases, they would need to see references. Experience suggests that problems are usually caused by unsatisfactory tenants rather than owner-occupiers and for that reason you can expect the freeholder to take up the references and consider them carefully before granting consent.

I work for a busy estate agency in Shillington where we see a few leasehold sales jeopardised due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have received inconsistent advice from local Shillington conveyancing solicitors. Can you confirm whether the owner of a flat can initiate the lease extension formalities for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

As long as the seller has been the owner 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 buyer can avoid having to wait 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done before, or at the same time as completion of the disposal of the property.

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.

What are your top tips when it comes to choosing a Shillington conveyancing practice to deal with our lease extension?

If you are instructing a conveyancer for your lease extension (regardless if they are a Shillington conveyancing firm) it is imperative that they be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of conveyancing. We recommend that you talk with several firms including non Shillington conveyancing practices before you instructing a firm. If the firm is ALEP accredited then that’s a bonus. Some following of questions could be useful:

• How experienced is the firm with lease extension legislation?

What are the frequently found defects that you encounter in leases for Shillington properties?

There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Shillington. Most leases are individual and drafting errors can sometimes mean that certain provisions are erroneous. 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 building
• A duty to insure the building
• 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 encounter difficulties when selling your property if you have a defective lease primarily because it impacts on the ability to obtain a mortgage on the property. Nationwide Building Society, Coventry Building Society, and Nottingham Building Society all have very detailed requirements 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, forcing the buyer to withdraw.

Shillington Leasehold Conveyancing - Examples of Questions you should ask Prior to Purchasing

Are any of leasehold owners in arrears of their service charge liability? Most Shillington leasehold properties will be liable to pay a service bill for the upkeep of the building invoiced on behalf of the freeholder. Should you purchase the flat you will have to meet this charge, usually in instalments during the year. This may be anything from a few hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for large purpose-built blocks. In all probability there will be a rentcharge for you to pay yearly, normally this is not a exorbitant figure, say about £25-£75 but you should to enquire as occasionally it can be prohibitively expensive. The answer will be helpful as a) areas can result in problems for the block as the communal areas may start to deteriorate where services remain unpaid b) if the leaseholders have an issue with the managing agents you will want to have full disclosure

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Shillington