Having had my offer accepted I require leasehold conveyancing in Stony Stratford. Before I get started I would like to find out the unexpired term of the lease.

Assuming the lease is recorded at the land registry - and 99.9% are in Stony Stratford - then the leasehold title will always include the short particulars of the lease, namely the date; the term; and the original parties. From a conveyancing perspective such details then enable any prospective buyer and lender to confirm that any lease they are looking at is the one relevant to that title.For any other purpose, such as confirming how long the term was granted for and calculating what is left, then the register should be sufficient on it's own.

Estate agents have just been given the go-ahead to market my basement flat in Stony Stratford.Conveyancing lawyers have not yet been instructed but I have just received a half-yearly maintenance charge invoice – what should I do?

It best that you pay the service charge 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 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. This will smooth the conveyancing process.

I am a negotiator for a long established estate agency in Stony Stratford where we see a number of leasehold sales derailed due to short leases. I have received conflicting advice from local Stony Stratford conveyancing solicitors. Please can you clarify whether the owner of a flat can start 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 commence the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. The benefit of this is that the proposed purchaser need not have to wait 2 years to extend their lease. 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 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 buyer.

Can you provide any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Stony Stratford with the aim of expediting the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Stony Stratford can be avoided if you instruct lawyers as soon as your agents start advertising the property and request that they start to put together the leasehold information needed by the purchasers’ conveyancers.
• The majority landlords or Management Companies in Stony Stratford charge for providing management packs for a leasehold premises. You or your lawyers should enquire as to the actual amount of the charges. The management pack can be applied for on or before finding a buyer, thus accelerating the process. The average time it takes to obtain the necessary information is three weeks. It is the most frequent cause of frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Stony Stratford.

In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s permission? In particular have you installed wooden flooring? Stony Stratford leases often stipulate that internal structural alterations or addition of wooden flooring necessitate a licence issued by the Landlord approving such works. Should you fail to have the paperwork to hand you should not contact the landlord without contacting your conveyancer before hand.

If there is a history of any disputes with your landlord or managing agents it is very important that these are settled before the property is put on the market. The buyers and their solicitors will be nervous about purchasing a flat where there is an ongoing dispute. You will have to accept that you will have to discharge any arrears of service charge or settle 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 will still have to reveal particulars of the dispute to the purchasers, but it is clearly preferable to reveal the dispute as historic as opposed to unresolved.

If you have the benefit of shareholding in the freehold, you should ensure that you are holding the original share certificate. Obtaining a duplicate share certificate is often a lengthy formality and delays many a Stony Stratford conveyancing deal. If a duplicate share is needed, do contact the company director and secretary or managing agents (where applicable) for this as soon as possible.

All being well we will complete the sale of our £450000 garden flat in Stony Stratford on Wednesday in a week. The landlords agents has quoted £408 for Landlord’s certificate, building insurance schedule and 3 years statements of service charge. Is the landlord entitled to charge an administration fee for a flat conveyance in Stony Stratford?

Stony Stratford conveyancing on leasehold maisonettes typically results in fees being invoiced by landlords agents :

• Completing conveyancing due diligence questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Stony Stratford
• Copies of the building insurance and schedule
• Deeds of covenant upon sale
• Registering of the assignment of the change of lessee after a sale

Your solicitor will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for Stony Stratford leasehold premises is £350. For Stony Stratford conveyancing transactions it is customary for the seller to pay for these costs. The landlord or their agents are under no legal obligation to answer such questions most will be willing to do so - albeit often at exorbitant prices where the fees bear little relation to the work involved. Unfortunately there is no law that requires fixed charges for administrative tasks. Neither is there any legal time frame by which they are required to supply answers.

I own a studio flat in Stony Stratford, conveyancing was carried out 5 years ago. Can you give me give me an indication of the likely cost of a lease extension? Comparable properties in Stony Stratford with over 90 years remaining are worth £255,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £65 levied per year. The lease runs out on 21st October 2098

With 74 years remaining on your lease we estimate the premium for your lease extension to be between £10,500 and £12,000 plus legals.

The suggested premium range above a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we are not able to supply a more accurate figure in the absence of comprehensive investigations. Do not use this information in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There are no doubt additional issues that need to be considered and clearly you should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Neither should you move forward based on this information before getting professional advice.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Stony Stratford