Helen (my wife) and I may need to rent out our Tedburn St Mary basement flat temporarily due to a career opportunity. We instructed a Tedburn St Mary conveyancing practice in 2004 but they have since shut and we did not think at the time seek any advice as to whether the lease prohibits the subletting of the flat. How do we find out?

Notwithstanding that your last Tedburn St Mary conveyancing solicitor is not available you can check your lease to see if it allows you to sublet the property. The accepted inference is that if the deeds are silent, subletting is allowed. There may be a precondition that you need to seek permission from your landlord or some other party prior to subletting. This means that you cannot sublet without prior permission. The consent must not not be unreasonably withheld. If the lease prohibits you from subletting the property you should ask your landlord if they are willing to waive this restriction.

I am attracted to a two maisonettes in Tedburn St Mary which have in the region of 50 years remaining on the leases. Should I regard a short lease as a deal breaker?

There is no doubt about it. A leasehold flat in Tedburn St Mary is a deteriorating asset as a result of the shortening lease. The nearer the lease gets to its expiry date, the more it adversely affects the marketability of the property. The majority of purchasers and banks, leases with less than eighty years become less and less marketable. On a more upbeat note, leaseholders can extend their leases by serving a Section 42 Notice. One stipulation is that they must have owned the premises 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 Tedburn St Mary 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 You may find he or she is happy to negotiate informally and willing to consider your offer straight off, without having to involve anyone else. This will save you time and money and it could help you reach a lower price on the lease. 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.

Do you have any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Tedburn St Mary from the point of view of speeding up the sale process?

• Much of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Tedburn St Mary can be avoided if you appoint lawyers as soon as you market your property and ask them to put together the leasehold documentation needed by the buyers representatives.
• The majority freeholders or managing agents in Tedburn St Mary levy fees for supplying management packs for a leasehold premises. You or your lawyers should find out the fee that they propose to charge. The management pack can be applied for as soon as you have a buyer, thus accelerating the process. The average time it takes to obtain the necessary information is three weeks. It is the most common cause of delay in leasehold conveyancing in Tedburn St Mary.

Completion in due on the sale of our £500000 garden flat in Tedburn St Mary next Thursday . The management company has quoted £360 for Landlord’s certificate, insurance certificate and previous years service charge statements. Is the landlord entitled to charge such fees for a flat conveyance in Tedburn St Mary?

Tedburn St Mary conveyancing on leasehold maisonettes normally involves the purchaser’s conveyancer sending questions for the landlord to address. Although the landlord is under no legal obligation to address such questions the majority will be willing to assist. They are entitled invoice a reasonable charge for responding to questions or supplying documentation. There is no set fee. The average fee for the information that you are referring to is over three hundred pounds, in some cases it exceeds £800. The management information fee demanded by the landlord must be accompanied by a synopsis of entitlements and obligations in relation to administration fees, without which the invoice is not strictly payable. In reality one has no option but to pay whatever is demanded if you want to complete the sale of your home.

In relation to leasehold conveyancing in Tedburn St Mary what are the most frequent lease defects?

Leasehold conveyancing in Tedburn St Mary is not unique. All leases are individual and drafting errors can result in certain clauses are not included. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:

• Repairing obligations to or maintain elements of the premises
• Insurance obligations
• A provision for the recovery of money spent for the benefit of another party.
• 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. Lloyds TSB Bank, Barnsley Building Society, and Nottingham Building Society 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 does not cover certain provisions they may refuse to provide security, obliging the purchaser to pull out.

I bought a 1st floor flat in Tedburn St Mary, conveyancing was carried out half a dozen years ago. Can you please calculate a probable premium for a statutory lease extension? Comparable properties in Tedburn St Mary with an extended lease are worth £168,000. The ground rent is £65 per annum. The lease runs out on 21st October 2082

You have 57 years left to run we estimate the premium for your lease extension to range between £24,700 and £28,600 plus legals.

The figure that we have given is a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we are not able to advice on the actual costs without more detailed due diligence. You should not use this information in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There may be additional issues that need to be taken into account and you obviously should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Neither should you move forward placing reliance on this information before getting professional advice.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Tedburn St Mary