My partner and I may need to rent out our Spilsby garden flat temporarily due to a new job. We instructed a Spilsby conveyancing practice in 2002 but they have since shut and we did not have the foresight to get any advice as to whether the lease permits subletting. How do we find out?

Notwithstanding that your previous Spilsby conveyancing lawyer is no longer available you can review your lease to check if you are permitted to let out the premises. The accepted inference is that if the lease is silent, subletting is permitted. Quite often there is a prerequisite that you are obliged to seek permission from your landlord or other appropriate person in advance of subletting. This means you not allowed to sublet in the absence of first obtaining permission. Such consent is not allowed to be unreasonably refused ore delayed. If your lease does not allow you to sublet you should ask your landlord for their consent.

I have recently realised that I have Sixty One years remaining on my flat in Spilsby. I now wish to get lease extension but my freeholder is absent. What should I do?

If you qualify, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the County Court for for permission to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will enable the lease to be lengthened by the magistrate. You will be obliged to prove that you have used your best endeavours to locate the landlord. On the whole an enquiry agent would be useful to conduct investigations and prepare a report which can be used as evidence that the freeholder is indeed missing. It is wise to seek advice from a solicitor both on devolving into the landlord’s disappearance and the vesting order request to the County Court overseeing Spilsby.

I have just started marketing my ground floor apartment in Spilsby.Conveyancing is yet to be initiated but I have just received a quarterly maintenance charge invoice – should I leave it to the buyer to sort out?

It best that you clear the service charge 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 until 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. Having a clear account will assist your cause and will leave you no worse off financially.

Can you offer any advice when it comes to appointing a Spilsby conveyancing firm to deal with our lease extension?

When appointing a solicitor for your lease extension (regardless if they are a Spilsby conveyancing firm) it is most important that he or she should be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of conveyancing. We suggested that you talk with several firms including non Spilsby conveyancing practices before you instructing a firm. Where the conveyancing practice is ALEP accredited then that’s a bonus. Some following of questions could be of use:

• How many lease extensions has the firm conducted in Spilsby in the last twenty four months?

What are the charges for lease extension work?

We expect to complete the sale of our £225000 garden flat in Spilsby next week. The managing agents has quoted £312 for Landlord’s certificate, building insurance schedule and 3 years service charge statements. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge an administration fee for a leasehold conveyance in Spilsby?

Spilsby conveyancing on leasehold apartments usually necessitates fees being levied by management companies :

• Answering conveyancing due diligence questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Spilsby
• 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 Spilsby leasehold property is £350. For Spilsby 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.

Spilsby Leasehold Conveyancing - A selection of Questions you should consider before buying

Plenty Spilsby leasehold apartments will have a service charge for the upkeep of the building set on behalf of the landlord. Should you buy the apartment you will have to pay this liability, normally periodically throughout the year. This could be anything from two or three hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for bigger purpose-built buildings. There will also be a ground rent to be met annual, ordinarily this is not a exorbitant amount, say approximately £50-£100 but you need to enquire it because on occasion it could be many hundreds of pounds. Does the lease have more than 82 years remaining? Make sure you investigate if the the lease contains any adverse restrictions in the lease. For example it is fairly common in Spilsby leases that pets are not permitted in in a block in Spilsby. If you like the apartmentin Spilsby but your cat can’t move with you then you will be faced hard choice.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Spilsby