Fixed-fee leasehold conveyancing in Stamford Bridge:

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When it comes to leasehold conveyancing in Stamford Bridge, you will need to appoint a conveyancing lawyer with leasehold experience. Whether your lender is to be Santander, Yorkshire Building Society or Nationwide make sure you choose a lawyer on their panel. Find a Stamford Bridge conveyancing lawyer with our search tool

Questions and Answers: Stamford Bridge leasehold conveyancing

There are only Seventy years remaining on my flat in Stamford Bridge. I now wish to extend my lease but my landlord is can not be found. What are my options?

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 for permission to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will mean that your lease can be lengthened by the magistrate. However, you will be required to prove that you have used your best endeavours to locate the lessor. In some cases a specialist should be helpful to conduct investigations and prepare an expert document to be used as proof that the freeholder is indeed missing. It is advisable to get professional help from a conveyancer both on proving the landlord’s absence and the vesting order request to the County Court overseeing Stamford Bridge.

Due to complete next month on a basement flat in Stamford Bridge. Conveyancing solicitors assured me that they are sending me a report next week. What should I be looking out for?

Your report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in Stamford Bridge should include some of the following:

  • The total extent of the premises. This will be the apartment itself but might include a roof space or cellar if appropriate.
  • Does the lease prevent you from letting out the flat, or working from home
  • You should be told what constitutes a Nuisance in the lease
  • Ground rent - how much and when you need to pay, and also know whether this will change in the future
  • Changes to the flat (alterations and additions)
  • The landlord’s rights to access the flat you be made aware that your landlord has rights of access and I know how much notice s/he must provide.
  • What the implications are if you breach a clause of your lease? For details of the information to be included in your report on your leasehold property in Stamford Bridge please ask your solicitor in ahead of your conveyancing in Stamford Bridge

    • I’m about to sell my basement flat in Stamford Bridge.Conveyancing has not commenced but I have just received a quarterly service charge invoice – what should I do?

    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 management companies will not acknowledge the buyer unless 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 work for a long established estate agent office in Stamford Bridge where we have experienced a few flat sales put at risk due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given conflicting advice from local Stamford Bridge conveyancing firms. Can you confirm whether the vendor of a flat can commence the lease extension process for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

    Provided that the seller has owned the lease for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to kick-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 to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done prior to, or simultaneously with 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 buyer.

    Can you provide any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Stamford Bridge from the point of view of speeding up the sale process?

    • Much of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Stamford Bridge can be avoided where you appoint lawyers the minute you market your property and request that they start to collate the leasehold documentation needed by the purchasers’ lawyers.
    • In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s consent? In particular have you laid down wooden flooring? Stamford Bridge leases often stipulate that internal structural alterations or laying down wooden flooring calls for a licence from the Landlord consenting to such alterations. Should you dont have the approvals in place do not communicate with the landlord without contacting your lawyer in advance.
  • A minority of Stamford Bridge leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this applies to your lease, you should place the estate agents on notice to make sure that the purchasers obtain financial (bank) and professional references. Any bank reference should make it clear that the buyer is financially capable of paying the yearly 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 conflict with your landlord or managing agents it is essential that these are resolved before the property is marketed. The buyers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a property where a dispute is unresolved. You may need to swallow your pride and discharge any arrears of service charge or settle the dispute prior to completion of the sale. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled ahead of the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You will still have to reveal particulars of the dispute to the buyers, but it is better to present the dispute as historic rather than unresolved.
  • If you have the benefit of shareholding in the Management Company, you should make sure that you have the original share certificate. Organising a re-issued share certificate is often a time consuming process and slows down many a Stamford Bridge home move. Where a reissued share is necessary, do contact the company director and secretary or managing agents (if relevant) for this at the earliest opportunity.

    • Leasehold Conveyancing in Stamford Bridge - Sample of Queries Prior to Purchasing

      Who are the managing agents? Most Stamford Bridge leasehold apartments will be liable to pay a service charge for maintenance of the block invoiced by the management company. Should you buy the property you will have to pay this contribution, usually in instalments accross the year. This may vary from a few hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for blocks with lifts and large communal grounds. There will also be a rentcharge to be met yearly, ordinarily this is not a significant figure, say around £50-£100 but you should to check it because on occasion it could be many hundreds of pounds. It is important to be aware whether window replacement or some other major work is due in the near future to be shared by the leasehold owners and could well dramatically increase the the service charges or result in a specific invoice.

    Other Topics

    Lease Extensions in Stamford Bridge