Looking forward to sign contracts shortly on a leasehold property in Tedburn St Mary. Conveyancing lawyers assured me that they report fully next week. What should I be looking out for?

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

• Details of the parties to the lease, for example these could be the leaseholder (you), head lessor, freeholder

I am looking at a two apartments in Tedburn St Mary which have approximately 50 years remaining on the lease term. Do I need to be concerned?

There are plenty of short leases in Tedburn St Mary. The lease is a legal document that entitles you to use the premises for a prescribed time frame. As a lease gets shorter the marketability of the lease decreases and results in it becoming more expensive to acquire a lease extension. For this reason it is advisable to extend the lease term. It is often difficult to sell a property with a short lease because mortgage lenders may be unwilling to lend money on such properties. Lease enfranchisement can be a difficult process. We advise that you get professional assistance from a conveyancer and surveyor with experience in this field

Last month I purchased a leasehold property in Tedburn St Mary. Do I have any liability for service charges for periods before my ownership?

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. 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 work for a busy estate agency in Tedburn St Mary where we have witnessed a number of leasehold sales jeopardised as a result of short leases. I have received inconsistent advice from local Tedburn St Mary conveyancing solicitors. Could you confirm whether the vendor of a flat can initiate the lease extension formalities for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

Provided that the seller has been the owner 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 buyer need not have 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 prior to, or at the same time as 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 buyer.

We expect to complete the sale of our £400000 apartment in Tedburn St Mary in just under a week. The managing agents has quoted £324 for Landlord’s certificate, building insurance schedule and 3 years service charge statements. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge exorbitant fees for a flat conveyance in Tedburn St Mary?

Tedburn St Mary conveyancing on leasehold apartments normally necessitates the buyer’s solicitor sending enquiries for the landlord to answer. Although the landlord is under no legal obligation to address such questions the majority will be willing to assist. They are at liberty invoice a reasonable administration fee for answering questions or supplying documentation. There is no set fee. The average costs for the paperwork that you are referring to is £350, in some situations it is above £800. The administration charge required by the landlord must be accompanied by a synopsis of rights and obligations in relation to administration fees, without which the charge is technically not due. Reality however dictates that you have no option but to pay whatever is demanded should you wish to exchange contracts with the buyer.

Tedburn St Mary Leasehold Conveyancing - Examples of Queries Prior to buying

Plenty Tedburn St Mary leasehold apartments will have a service bill for the upkeep of the building levied by the management company. Where you buy the flat you will have to meet this liability, usually quarterly throughout the year. This could be anything from two or three hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for large purpose-built blocks. There will also be a ground rent to be met yearly, normally this is not a exorbitant figure, say around £50-£100 but you need to check it because on occasion it could be many hundreds of pounds. The best form of lease structure is if the freehold reversion is owned by the leaseholders. In this situation the leaseholders enjoy being in charge if their destiny and notwithstanding that a managing agent is often retained if the building is larger than a house conversion, the managing agent is directed by the tenants. You should be aware that where the lease has fewer than 80 years it will affect the salability of the property. Check with your bank that they are happy with the length of the lease. A short lease means that you will most likely have to extend the lease sooner rather than later and you need to have some idea of what this would cost. Remember, in most cases you would be required to have been the owner of the premises for a couple of years in order to be legally able to carry out a lease extension.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Tedburn St Mary