I only have Sixty One years unexpired on my lease in Sychdyn. I now wish to get lease extension but my freeholder is can not be found. What options are available to me?

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 extended by the Court. However, you will be required to prove that you or your lawyers have used your best endeavours to track down the freeholder. In some cases an enquiry agent should be useful to try and locate and to produce a report to be used as proof that the landlord can not be located. It is advisable to get professional help from a conveyancer in relation to investigating the landlord’s disappearance and the vesting order request to the County Court overseeing Sychdyn.

Looking forward to sign contracts shortly on a leasehold property in Sychdyn. Conveyancing solicitors have said that they report fully next week. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?

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

• You should receive a copy of the lease

I am tempted by the attractive purchase price for a couple of apartments in Sychdyn which have approximately forty five years left on the leases. Should I regard a short lease as a deal breaker?

A lease is a legal document that entitles you to use the property for a period of time. As the lease gets shorter the saleability of the lease reduces and results in it becoming more costly to acquire a lease extension. This is why it is often a good idea to extend the lease term. It is often difficult to sell a property with a short lease because mortgage lenders may be reluctant to lend money on such properties. Lease enfranchisement can be a protracted process. We recommend you get professional help from a conveyancer and surveyor with experience in this arena

Last month I purchased a leasehold flat in Sychdyn. Do I have any liability for service charges for periods before completion of my purchase?

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 be sure 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).

What makes a Sychdyn lease unmortgageable?

There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Sychdyn. Most leases are individual and legal mistakes in the legal wording can result in certain provisions are not included. The following missing provisions could result in a defective lease:

• A provision to repair to or maintain parts of the premises
• A duty to insure the building
• Clauses dealing with recovering service charges for expenditure on the building or common parts.
• Service charge per centages that don't add up correctly leaving a shortfall

A defective lease can cause issues when trying to sell a property primarily because it impacts on the ability to obtain a mortgage on the property. Nationwide Building Society, Chelsea Building Society, and Godiva Mortgages Ltd all have very detailed conveyancing instructions when it comes to what is expected in a lease. Where a lender has been advised by their lawyers that the lease is defective they may refuse to grant the mortgage, obliging the buyer to pull out.

Leasehold Conveyancing in Sychdyn - Sample of Queries before buying

For many Sychdyn leaseholds the outlay for major works tend not to be built into the maintenance charges, albeit that there some managing agents in Sychdyn require leasehold owners to contribute towards a reserve fund created for the specific purpose of building a fund for major repairs or maintenance. The majority of Sychdyn leasehold flats will incur a service bill for maintenance of the building levied by the management company. If you buy the flat you will have to pay this amount, usually quarterly accross the year. This can be anything from a couple of hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for bigger purpose-built blocks. In all probability there will be a ground rent for you to pay annual, this is usually not a significant sum, say approximately £25-£75 but you should to enquire it because occasionally it can be many hundreds of pounds. How much is the ground rent and service charge?

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Sychdyn