Harry (my fiance) and I may need to let out our St Davids 1st floor flat temporarily due to a career opportunity. We instructed a St Davids conveyancing practice in 2003 but they have since shut and we did not have the foresight to get any guidance as to whether the lease allows us to sublet. How do we find out?

Even though your last St Davids conveyancing lawyer is no longer around you can check your lease to check if you are permitted to let out the premises. The accepted inference is that if the lease is non-specific, subletting is allowed. There may be a precondition that you must seek consent via your landlord or other appropriate person in advance of subletting. This means you not allowed to sublet without first obtaining permission. The consent must not not be unreasonably withheld. 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 have just started marketing my 2 bed apartment in St Davids.Conveyancing is yet to be initiated but I have just had a half-yearly maintenance charge invoice – should I leave it to the buyer to sort out?

It best that you 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 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.

I am tempted by the attractive purchase price for a two apartments in St Davids which have in the region of fifty years unexpired on the leases. Will this present a problem?

There are no two ways about it. A leasehold flat in St Davids is a wasting asset as a result of the shortening lease. The nearer the lease gets to zero years unexpired, the more it adversely affects the value of the premises. The majority of buyers and mortgage companies, leases with under 75 years become less and less marketable. On a more positive note, leaseholders can extend their leases by serving a Section 42 Notice. One stipulation is that they must have owned the premises for two years (unlike a Section 13 notice for purchasing the freehold, when leaseholders can participate from day one of ownership). When successful, they will have the right to an extension of 90 years to the current term and ground rent is effectively reduced to zero. Before moving forward with a purchase of property with a short lease term remaining you should talk to a solicitor specialising in lease extensions and leasehold enfranchisement. We are are happy to put you in touch with St Davids conveyancing experts who will explain the options available to you during an initial telephone conversation free of charge. A more straightforward and quicker method of extending would be to contact your landlord directly and sound him out on the prospect of extending the lease You may find he or she is happy to negotiate informally and willing to consider your offer straight off, without having to involve anyone else. This will save you time and money and it could help you reach a lower price on the lease. You need to ensure that any new terms represent good long-term value compared with the standard benefits of the Section 42 Notice and that onerous clauses are not inserted into any redrafting of the lease.

Last month I purchased a leasehold house in St Davids. Am I liable to pay service charges relating to a period prior to completion of my purchase?

Where the service charge has already been demanded from the previous owner 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. A critical element of leasehold conveyancing for your conveyancer to be sure 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).

Do you have any advice for leasehold conveyancing in St Davids with the aim of saving time on the sale process?

• Much of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in St Davids can be bypassed if you instruct lawyers as soon as you market your property and ask them to collate the leasehold information needed by the purchasers’ lawyers.
• The majority landlords or Management Companies in St Davids levy fees for supplying management packs for a leasehold homes. You or your lawyers should discover the fee that they propose to charge. The management pack can be applied for as soon as you have a buyer, thus reducing delays. The average time it takes to receive management information is three weeks. It is the most frequent reason for frustration in leasehold conveyancing in St Davids.

St Davids Leasehold Conveyancing - Sample of Queries Prior to buying

What is the yearly maintenance fee and ground rent? Be sure to find out if the the lease includes any unreasonable restrictions in the lease. For instance plenty of leases prohibit pets being permitted in in a block in St Davids. If you love the apartmentin St Davids yet your cat can’t live with you then you will be presented with a difficult determination. If a St Davids lease has fewer than eighty years it will have adverse implications on the value of the apartment. It is worth checking with your bank that they are willing to go ahead with the loan given the lease term. Leases with less than 80 years remaining means that you will almost definitely need a lease extension at some point and you need to have some idea of what this will be. For most St Davidslease extensions you will be be obliged to have owned the residence for two years before you are eligible to carry out a lease extension.

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Lease Extensions in St Davids