There are only 68 years left on my lease in Thurrock. I need to extend my lease but my freeholder is missing. What options are available to me?

On the basis that you qualify, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the County Court for an order to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will enable the lease to be granted an extra 90 years by the Court. You will be obliged to demonstrate that you have used your best endeavours to find the landlord. In some cases a specialist should be helpful to conduct investigations and prepare an expert document which can be used as proof that the landlord is indeed missing. It is wise to seek advice from a solicitor in relation to devolving into the landlord’s absence and the vesting order request to the County Court covering Thurrock.

Due to sign contracts shortly on a studio apartment in Thurrock. Conveyancing lawyers inform me that they will have a report out to me within the next couple of days. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?

The report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in Thurrock should include some of the following:

• The length of the lease term You should be advised as what happens when the lease ends, and informed of the importance of the 80 year mark
• Will you be prohibited or prevented from having pets in the property?
• Does the lease prevent you from renting out the flat, or working from home
• You should be told what constitutes a Nuisance in the lease
• The landlord’s rights to access the flat you be made aware that your landlord has rights of access and I know how much notice s/he must provide.
• Responsibility for repairing the window frames
• What you can do if a neighbour breach a clause of their lease?

I’m about to sell my ground floor apartment in Thurrock.Conveyancing has not commenced but I have just received a quarterly maintenance charge invoice – should I leave it to the buyer to sort out?

Your conveyancing lawyer is likely to suggest that you should clear 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 unless 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 looking at a couple of flats in Thurrock which have approximately forty five years remaining on the lease term. Do I need to be concerned?

There is no doubt about it. A leasehold apartment in Thurrock is a deteriorating asset as a result of the shortening lease. The closer the lease gets to its expiry date, the more it adversely affects the marketability of the property. For most purchasers and lenders, leases with under 75 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 premises 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 Thurrock conveyancing experts who will explain the options available to you during an initial telephone conversation free of charge. More often than not it is possible to negotiate informally with the freeholder to extend 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 the agreed 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.

When it comes to leasehold conveyancing in Thurrock what are the most frequent lease problems?

There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Thurrock. Most leases are unique and legal mistakes in the legal wording can sometimes mean that certain sections are wrong. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:

• Repairing obligations to or maintain parts of the building
• Insurance obligations
• A provision for the recovery of money spent for the benefit of another party.
• Maintenance charge proportions which don’t add up to the correct percentage

A defective lease will likely cause problems when trying to sell a property as they can affect a potential buyer’s ability to obtain a mortgage. Birmingham Midshires, Leeds Building Society, and Platform Home Loans Ltd all have express 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 grant the mortgage, forcing the buyer to pull out.

Thurrock Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - Examples of Queries before Purchasing

The prefered form of lease arrangement is a share of the freehold. In this arrangement the lessees benefit from control and notwithstanding that a managing agent is frequently employed if it is bigger than a house conversion, the managing agent employed by the leaseholders. If a Thurrock lease has fewer than eighty years it will impact the value of the property. It is worth checking with your lender that they are content with remaining years on the lease. Leases with fewer than 80 years remaining means that you will almost definitely require a lease extension at some point and you need to have some idea of how much this will be. For most Thurrocklease extensions you would be required to have owned the premises for a couple of years in order to be legally able to carry out a lease extension.