Fixed-fee leasehold conveyancing in St Werburghs:

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When it comes to leasehold conveyancing in St Werburghs, you will need to chose a conveyancing practitioner with leasehold experience. Whether your lender is to be Clydesdale , Birmingham Midshires or Bradford & Bingley make sure you find a lawyer on their approved list. Feel free to use our search tool

St Werburghs leasehold conveyancing: Q and A’s

I’m about to sell my ground floor apartment in St Werburghs.Conveyancing solicitors are to be appointed soon but I have just had a quarterly maintenance charge demand – Do I pay up?

Your conveyancing lawyer is likely to suggest that you should pay 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 looking at a couple of maisonettes in St Werburghs both have about fifty years remaining on the lease term. Do I need to be concerned?

There is no doubt about it. A leasehold apartment in St Werburghs is a deteriorating asset as a result of the shortening lease. The nearer the lease gets to its expiry date, the more it reduces the salability of the property. For most buyers and mortgage companies, leases with under eighty years become less and less attractive. On a more upbeat 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 a residence 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 Werburghs 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 They may agree to a smaller lump sum and an increase in the ground rent, but to shorter extension terms in return. 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.

I work for a busy estate agent office in St Werburghs where we have witnessed a few flat sales jeopardised due to short leases. I have been given inconsistent advice from local St Werburghs conveyancing solicitors. Can you shed some light as to whether the seller of a flat can commence 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 start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. The benefit of this is 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 has to be done before, or at the same time as completion of the disposal of the property.

An alternative approach is to extend the lease informally by agreement with the landlord 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.

Do you have any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in St Werburghs from the point of view of saving time on the sale process?

  • A significant proportion of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in St Werburghs can be avoided where you appoint lawyers the minute you market your property and request that they start to put together the leasehold documentation needed by the buyers representatives.
  • The majority freeholders or Management Companies in St Werburghs charge for supplying management packs for a leasehold homes. You or your lawyers should find out the fee that they propose to charge. The management pack sought as soon as you have a buyer, thus accelerating the process. The average time it takes to obtain the necessary information is three weeks. It is the most common cause of delay in leasehold conveyancing in St Werburghs.
  • In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s approval? Have you, for example laid down wooden flooring? St Werburghs leases often stipulate that internal structural alterations or laying down wooden flooring calls for a licence from the Landlord consenting to such works. Where you fail to have the paperwork in place do not contact the landlord without checking with your solicitor first.
  • Some St Werburghs leases require Landlord’s consent to the sale and approval of the buyers. If this is the case, you should notify your estate agents to make sure that the purchasers put in hand bank and professional references. Any bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are financially capable of paying the annual service charge and the actual amount of the service charge should be quoted in the bank’s letter. You will therefore need to provide your estate agents with the service charge figures so that they can pass this information on to the buyers or their lawyers.
  • If you have had any disputes with your freeholder or managing agents it is essential that these are settled before the property is put on the market. The buyers and their solicitors will be warry about purchasing a flat where there is an ongoing dispute. You may need to swallow your pride and discharge any arrears of service charge or resolve the dispute prior to the buyers completing the purchase. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled ahead of the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You are still duty bound to disclose details of the dispute to the buyers, but it is clearly preferable to reveal the dispute as over as opposed to ongoing.

    • In relation to leasehold conveyancing in St Werburghs what are the most frequent lease defects?

    Leasehold conveyancing in St Werburghs is not unique. Most leases is drafted differently and legal mistakes in the legal wording can result in certain sections are not included. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:

    • Repairing obligations to or maintain elements of the building
    • Insurance obligations
    • A provision for the recovery of money spent for the benefit of another party.
    • Maintenance charge proportions which don’t add up to the correct percentage

    A defective lease can cause problems when trying to sell a property as they can affect a potential buyer’s ability to obtain a mortgage. Lloyds TSB Bank, Leeds Building Society, and Britannia all have express requirements when it comes to what is expected in a lease. If a mortgage lender believes that the lease does not cover certain provisions they may refuse to provide security, obliging the buyer to pull out.

    St Werburghs Leasehold Conveyancing - Examples of Queries before Purchasing

      Its a good idea to find out as much as possible concerning the managing agents as they will impact your use and enjoyment of the property. As the owner of a leasehold property you are frequently at the mercy of the managing agents from a financial perspective and when it comes to day to day issues such as the tidiness of the common parts. Ask other people whether they are happy with their management. On a final note, find out the dates that you are obliged pay the service charge to the managing agents and precisely how they are spending that money. The prefered form of lease arrangement is a share of the freehold. In this scenario the leaseholders benefit from being in charge if their destiny and although a managing agent is frequently employed where it is larger than a house conversion, the managing agent acts for the leaseholders themselves. What is the the remaining lease term?

    Other Topics

    Lease Extensions in St Werburghs