Fixed-fee leasehold conveyancing in Stoke Sub Hamdon:

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Common questions relating to Stoke Sub Hamdon leasehold conveyancing

I want to sublet my leasehold apartment in Stoke Sub Hamdon. Conveyancing solicitor who did the purchase is retired - so can't ask him. Is permission from the freeholder required?

Even though your last Stoke Sub Hamdon conveyancing solicitor is no longer available you can review your lease to see if it allows you to sublet the property. The accepted inference is that if the lease is non-specific, subletting is allowed. There may be a precondition that you are obliged to seek permission from your landlord or some other party prior to subletting. This means you not allowed to sublet without prior consent. Such consent should not be unreasonably withheld. If the lease prohibits you from subletting the property you should ask your landlord for their consent.

Back In 2004, I bought a leasehold flat in Stoke Sub Hamdon. Conveyancing and Nottingham Building Society mortgage are in place. A letter has just been received from someone saying they have taken over the freehold. It included a ground rent demand for rent dating back to 1995. The conveyancing practitioner in Stoke Sub Hamdon who acted for me is not around.Any advice?

The first thing you should do is contact HMLR to be sure that this person is in fact the new freeholder. You do not need to incur the fees of a Stoke Sub Hamdon conveyancing firm to do this as you can do this on the Land Registry website for less than a fiver. Rest assured that regardless, even if this is the rightful freeholder, under the Limitation Act 1980 no more than 6 years of rent can be collected.

Last month I purchased a leasehold house in Stoke Sub Hamdon. Do I have any liability for service charges for periods before my ownership?

In a situation 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. Strange as it may seem, your landlord may still be able to take action to forfeit the lease. A critical element 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).

I am a negotiator for a long established estate agency in Stoke Sub Hamdon where we have experienced a number of leasehold sales jeopardised due to short leases. I have been given contradictory information from local Stoke Sub Hamdon conveyancing firms. Can you shed some light as to whether the owner of a flat can start the lease extension formalities 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 start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. This means that the buyer 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 simultaneously with completion of the disposal of the property.

Alternatively, it may be possible to agree the lease extension with the freeholder 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.

Can you provide any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Stoke Sub Hamdon with the intention of speeding up the sale process?

  • Much of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Stoke Sub Hamdon can be reduced where you get in touch lawyers as soon as your agents start marketing the property and request that they start to put together the leasehold information which will be required by the buyers solicitors.
  • The majority landlords or Management Companies in Stoke Sub Hamdon levy fees for providing management packs for a leasehold homes. You or your lawyers should enquire as to the fee that they propose to charge. The management pack can be applied for on or before finding a buyer, thus accelerating the process. The average time it takes to receive management information is three weeks. It is the most usual cause of frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Stoke Sub Hamdon.
  • In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s approval? Have you, for example installed wooden flooring? Stoke Sub Hamdon leases often stipulate that internal structural alterations or laying down wooden flooring require a licence from the Landlord acquiescing to such changes. If you fail to have the consents in place do not contact the landlord without checking with your lawyer before hand.
  • Some Stoke Sub Hamdon leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this applies to your lease, it would be prudent to place the estate agents on notice to make sure that the purchasers obtain bank and professional references. Any bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are 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 actual amount of the service charge so that they can pass this information on to the buyers or their solicitors.
  • If you have had conflict with your freeholder or managing agents it is very important that these are settled before the property is marketed. The purchasers and their solicitors will be nervous about purchasing a flat where a dispute is unsettled. You may need to swallow your pride and pay any arrears of service charge or resolve the dispute prior to completion of the sale. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled prior to the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You are still duty bound to disclose details of the dispute to the purchasers, but it is better to present the dispute as over rather than unsettled.

    • Leasehold Conveyancing in Stoke Sub Hamdon - A selection of Questions you should ask before buying

      Make sure you discover if there is anything that is prohibited in the lease. For example plenty of leases prohibit pets being allowed in certain buildings in Stoke Sub Hamdon. If you like the propertyin Stoke Sub Hamdon however your cat is not allowed to move with you then you have a very hard choice. For most Stoke Sub Hamdon leaseholds the outlay for major works are not wrapped into the maintenance charges, although a few managing agents in Stoke Sub Hamdon require leaseholders to contribute towards a reserve fund and this is used to offset against major works. Where a Stoke Sub Hamdon lease has no more than 80 years it will impact the value of the apartment. It is worth checking with your lender that they are happy with remaining years on the lease. A short lease means that you will most likely require a lease extension sooner rather than later and you need to have some idea of what this will be. Remember, in most cases you will need to own the residence for two years in order to be eligible to exercise a lease extension.

    Other Topics

    Lease Extensions in Stoke Sub Hamdon