My husband and I may need to sub-let our Stony Stratford garden flat for a while due to taking a sabbatical. We instructed a Stony Stratford conveyancing practice in 2001 but they have since shut and we did not have the foresight to seek any guidance as to whether the lease allows us to sublet. How do we find out?

Even though your last Stony Stratford conveyancing lawyer is no longer around you can check your lease to see if it allows you to sublet the property. The rule is that if the deeds are non-specific, subletting is allowed. There may be a precondition that you need to seek permission from your landlord or some other party prior to subletting. The net result is you not allowed to sublet without prior consent. Such consent is not allowed to be unreasonably withheld. If your lease prohibits you from letting out the property you will need to ask your landlord for their consent.

I am tempted by the attractive purchase price for a couple of flats in Stony Stratford both have approximately forty five years remaining on the lease term. should I be concerned?

There are no two ways about it. A leasehold flat in Stony Stratford 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 value of the premises. The majority of buyers and banks, 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 property 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 Stony Stratford 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've recently bought a leasehold property in Stony Stratford. Am I liable to pay service charges for periods before completion of my purchase?

In a situation 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. It is an essential part 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 agent office in Stony Stratford where we see a number of flat sales jeopardised due to short leases. I have been given contradictory information from local Stony Stratford conveyancing solicitors. Please can you shed some light as to whether the vendor of a flat can start the lease extension formalities for the buyer?

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. The benefit of this is that the proposed purchaser can avoid having to sit tight for 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 sale.

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 purchaser.

Completion in due on the disposal of our £250000 maisonette in Stony Stratford in just under a week. The landlords agents has quoted £324 for Landlord’s certificate, insurance certificate and 3 years statements of service charge. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge an administration fee for a leasehold conveyance in Stony Stratford?

Stony Stratford conveyancing on leasehold maisonettes normally requires the buyer’s conveyancer submitting enquiries for the landlord to answer. Although the landlord is not legally bound to respond to these enquiries the majority will be content to do so. They are entitled invoice a reasonable charge for answering questions or supplying documentation. There is no set fee. The average fee for the paperwork that you are referring to is over three hundred pounds, in some situations it is above £800. The management information fee levied by the landlord must be accompanied by a synopsis of entitlements and obligations in relation to administration fees, without which the charge is technically not due. In reality one has no option but to pay whatever is demanded if you want to sell the property.

Leasehold Conveyancing in Stony Stratford - A selection of Queries Prior to buying

The prefered form of lease structure is a share of the freehold. In this situation the lessees have control and even though a managing agent is usually employed if it is larger than a house conversion, the managing agent acts for the leaseholders themselves. In the main the cost for major works are not built into the service charges, although there some managing agents in Stony Stratford require leasehold owners to contribute towards a reserve fund created for the specific intention of building a fund for major repairs or maintenance. This question is useful as a) areas may result in problems in the block as the communal areas may start to deteriorate if repairs are not paid for b) if the leasehold owners have an issue with the managing agents you will need to know about it

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Lease Extensions in Stony Stratford