Top Five Questions relating to Southport leasehold conveyancing
I am on look out for some leasehold conveyancing in Southport. Before diving in I would like to find out the remaining lease term.
If the lease is registered - and almost all are in Southport - then the leasehold title will always include the basic details 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.
Having checked my lease I have discovered that there are only 68 years unexpired on my flat in Southport. I now wish to extend my lease but my landlord is missing. What should I do?
On the basis that you qualify, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can submit an application to the County Court for an order to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will enable the lease to be granted an extra 90 years by the magistrate. You will be obliged to prove that you have made all reasonable attempts to locate the freeholder. For most situations an enquiry agent would be helpful to try and locate and prepare a report to be used as evidence that the freeholder is indeed missing. It is wise to seek advice from a property lawyer both on proving the landlord’s absence and the application to the County Court covering Southport.
I am hoping to exchange soon on a garden flat in Southport. Conveyancing lawyers inform me that they will have a report out to me next week. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?
The report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in Southport should include some of the following:
- You should receive a copy of the lease
Estate agents have just been given the go-ahead to market my garden apartment in Southport.Conveyancing solicitors are to be appointed soon but I have just had a quarterly maintenance charge invoice – Do I pay up?
The sensible thing to do is discharge the invoice as normal because all ground rent and service charges will be apportioned on completion, so you will be reimbursed by the buyer for the period running from after the completion date to the next payment date. Most managing agents will not acknowledge the buyer unless the service charges have been paid and are up to date so it is important for both buyer and seller for the seller to show that they are up to date. This will smooth the conveyancing process.
I am employed by a long established estate agent office in Southport where we see a few leasehold sales derailed as a result of short leases. I have received inconsistent advice from local Southport conveyancing solicitors. Can you shed some light as to whether the owner of a flat can initiate the lease extension formalities for the purchaser on completion of the sale?
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. The benefit of this is that the proposed purchaser need not have to wait 2 years to extend their lease. 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 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 buyer.
I acquired a 1st floor flat in Southport, conveyancing was carried out half a dozen years ago. Can you work out an approximate cost of a lease extension? Corresponding flats in Southport with a long lease are worth £219,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £55 levied per year. The lease runs out on 21st October 2099
With only 76 years remaining on your lease the likely cost is going to be between £10,500 and £12,000 plus costs.
The figure that we have given is a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we are not able to provide a more accurate figure without more detailed investigations. You should not use the figures in tribunal or court proceedings. There may be other concerns that need to be considered and clearly you want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. You should not take any other action based on this information before getting professional advice.
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