My fiance and I may need to sub-let our Speke garden flat temporarily due to a new job. We instructed a Speke conveyancing firm in 2003 but they have since shut 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 Speke conveyancing solicitor is no longer available you can check your lease to see if it allows you to sublet the property. The rule is that if the lease is silent, subletting is allowed. There may be a precondition that you must obtain permission via your landlord or other appropriate person prior to subletting. The net result is that you cannot sublet in the absence of first obtaining consent. Such consent must not not be unreasonably turned down. If the lease does not allow you to sublet you will need to ask your landlord if they are willing to waive this restriction.

I only have Seventy years unexpired on my flat in Speke. I now wish to extend my lease but my freeholder is missing. What options are available to me?

If you meet the appropriate requirements, 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 mean that your lease can be lengthened by the magistrate. You will be obliged to prove that you have used your best endeavours to locate the lessor. On the whole an enquiry agent would be useful to conduct investigations and to produce an expert document which can be accepted by the court as evidence that the landlord is indeed missing. It is wise to seek advice from a solicitor both on proving the landlord’s disappearance and the application to the County Court covering Speke.

I am attracted to a two apartments in Speke both have in the region of fifty years unexpired on the leases. Should I regard a short lease as a deal breaker?

There are plenty of short leases in Speke. The lease is a right to use the premises for a prescribed time frame. As the lease shortens the value of the lease decreases and results in it becoming more costly to acquire a lease extension. For this reason it is advisable to extend the lease term. More often than not it is difficult to sell a property with a short lease because mortgage companies may be reluctant to lend money on properties of this type. Lease extension can be a protracted process. We advise that you get professional help from a conveyancer and surveyor with experience in this area

I work for a long established estate agent office in Speke where we see a few leasehold sales derailed as a result of leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given conflicting advice from local Speke conveyancing firms. Please can you shed some light as to whether the vendor of a flat can commence 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 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 wait 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed 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.

If all goes to plan we aim to complete our sale of a £275000 garden flat in Speke in six days. The landlords agents has quoted £396 for Certificate of Compliance, building insurance schedule and previous years service charge statements. Is the landlord entitled to charge an administration fee for a flat conveyance in Speke?

For the majority of leasehold sales in Speke 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-exchange enquiries
• Where consent is required before sale in Speke
• Supplying insurance information
• 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 Speke leasehold premises is £350. For Speke 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 supply answers.

Leasehold Conveyancing in Speke - Sample of Queries Prior to Purchasing

It is important to be aware if a new roof is being installed or some other major work is due in the foreseeable future that will be shared between the leaseholders and could well dramatically increase the the maintenance costs or result in a specific payment. Are any of leasehold owners in arrears of their service charge payments? Is anyone aware of any major works in the planning that could add a premium to the service charges?

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Speke