My wife and I purchased a leasehold flat in St Austell. Conveyancing and The Royal Bank of Scotland mortgage went though with no issue. A letter has just been received from someone claiming to own the reversionary interest in the property. Attached was a ground rent demand for rent dating back to 1993. The conveyancing practitioner in St Austell who acted for me is not around.What should I do?

The first thing you should do is make enquiries of the Land Registry to make sure that this person is in fact the registered owner of the freehold reversion. It is not necessary to instruct a St Austell conveyancing practitioner to do this as you can do this on the Land Registry website for less than a fiver. Rest assured that in any event, even if this is the legitimate freeholder, under the Limitation Act 1980 the limitation period for recovery of ground rent is six years.

I am tempted by the attractive purchase price for a two maisonettes in St Austell both have about forty five years left on the leases. Do I need to be concerned?

A lease is a legal document that entitles you to use the property for a period of time. As the lease shortens the saleability of the lease decreases and it becomes more expensive to extend the lease. This is why it is generally wise to increase the term of the lease. More often than not it is difficulties arise selling premises with a short lease as mortgage lenders less inclined to grant a loan on properties of this type. Lease extension can be a difficult process. We advise that you get professional help from a solicitor and surveyor with experience in this arena

Last month I purchased a leasehold house in St Austell. Am I liable to pay service charges for periods before 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).

Can you offer any advice when it comes to appointing a St Austell conveyancing practice to carry out our lease extension conveyancing?

When appointing a solicitor for your lease extension (regardless if they are a St Austell conveyancing practice) 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 St Austell conveyancing practices before you instructing a firm. Where the conveyancing practice is ALEP accredited then that’s a bonus. Some following of questions might be useful:

• If the firm is not ALEP accredited then what is the reason?

All being well we will complete the disposal of our £425000 flat in St Austell in nine days. The management company has quoted £312 for Certificate of Compliance, insurance certificate and previous years statements of service charge. Is the landlord entitled to charge such fees for a leasehold conveyance in St Austell?

St Austell conveyancing on leasehold flats usually necessitates the buyer’s lawyer sending questions for the landlord to answer. Although the landlord is under no legal obligation to answer such questions most will be content to assist. They may invoice a reasonable administration fee for responding to enquiries or supplying documentation. There is no upper cap for such fees. The average fee for the information that you are referring to is £350, in some cases it is in excess of £800. The management information fee invoiced by the landlord must be accompanied by a summary of rights and obligations in relation to administration charges, otherwise the invoice is technically not due. In reality one has no choice but to pay whatever is requested of you if you want to sell the property.

St Austell Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - A selection of Queries Prior to Purchasing

For most St Austell leaseholds the outlay for major works tend not to be wrapped into the maintenance charges, albeit that there some managing agents in St Austell ask leasehold owners to contribute towards a sinking fund created for the specific purpose of establishing a fund for larger works. Is the freehold reversion owned jointly by the leaseholders? This question is useful as a) areas can cause problems for the block as the communal areas may start to deteriorate where repairs remain unpaid b) if the leaseholders have a dispute with the running of the building you will need to have complete disclosure

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in St Austell