Fixed-fee leasehold conveyancing in Toddington:

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Any conveyancing practice can theoretically deal with your leasehold conveyancing in Toddington, your mortgage provider may unwilling to work with them if the firm are not on their list of approved solicitors for conveyancing

Common questions relating to Toddington leasehold conveyancing

Having had my offer accepted I require leasehold conveyancing in Toddington. Before diving in I want to be sure as to the remaining lease term.

Assuming the lease is registered - and 99.9% are in Toddington - then the leasehold title will always include the basic details of the lease, namely the date; the term; and the original parties. From a conveyancing perspective such details then enable any prospective buyer and lender to confirm that any lease they are looking at is the one relevant to that title.For any other purpose, such as confirming how long the term was granted for and calculating what is left, then the register should be sufficient on it's own.

Having checked my lease I have discovered that there are only 62 years remaining on my flat in Toddington. I am keen to get lease extension but my freeholder is missing. What should I do?

On the basis that you qualify, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can submit an application to the County Court for an order to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will mean that your lease can be granted an extra 90 years by the Court. However, you will be required to demonstrate that you have done all that could be expected to locate the landlord. In some cases a specialist should be useful to try and locate and to produce an expert document which can be used as proof that the landlord is indeed missing. It is advisable to get professional help from a conveyancer both on proving the landlord’s disappearance and the application to the County Court overseeing Toddington.

Expecting to exchange soon on a leasehold property in Toddington. Conveyancing solicitors inform me that they will have a report out to me next week. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?

Your report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in Toddington 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
  • Details of the parties to the lease, for example these could be the leaseholder (you), head lessor, landlord
  • Does the lease prevent you from letting out the flat, or working from home
  • You need to be told what counts as a Nuisance in the lease
  • Repair and maintenance of the flat
  • Responsibility for repairing the window frames
  • What you can do if a neighbour breach a clause of their lease? For details of the information to be contained in your report on your leasehold property in Toddington please enquire of your solicitor in advance of your conveyancing in Toddington

    • I am a negotiator for a busy estate agency in Toddington where we see a number of flat sales jeopardised as a result of short leases. I have been given inconsistent advice from local Toddington conveyancing solicitors. Can you confirm whether the vendor of a flat can initiate the lease extension process for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

    As long as 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. This means that the buyer need not have to wait 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed before, or simultaneously with completion of the disposal of the property.

    Alternatively, it may be possible to extend the lease informally by agreement with the landlord 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.

    Do you have any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Toddington with the purpose of expediting the sale process?

    • A significant proportion of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Toddington can be bypassed if you appoint lawyers the minute your agents start marketing the property and request that they start to collate the leasehold information which will be required by the purchasers’ representatives.
    • The majority freeholders or Management Companies in Toddington levy fees for supplying management packs for a leasehold premises. You or your lawyers should enquire as to the fee that they propose to charge. The management information can be applied for as soon as you have a buyer, thus accelerating the process. The typical amount of time it takes to receive management information is three weeks. It is the most frequent reason for delay in leasehold conveyancing in Toddington.
  • A minority of Toddington leases require Landlord’s consent to the sale and approval of the buyers. If this is the case, you should place the estate agents on notice to make sure that the purchasers put in hand financial (bank) and professional references. Any bank reference should make it clear that the buyer is financially capable of paying the annual service charge and the actual amount of the service charge should be quoted in the bank’s letter. You will therefore need to provide your estate agents with the actual amount of the service charge so that they can pass this information on to the buyers or their solicitors.
  • If there is a history of conflict with your landlord or managing agents it is essential that these are resolved prior to the flat being marketed. The buyers and their solicitors will be nervous about purchasing a flat where there is an ongoing dispute. You may have to bite the bullet and pay any arrears of service charge or settle the dispute prior to the buyers completing the purchase. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled ahead of the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You will still have to reveal particulars of the dispute to the purchasers, but it is clearly preferable to reveal the dispute as historic as opposed to unresolved.
  • If you have the benefit of shareholding in the Management Company, you should make sure that you are holding the original share certificate. Organising a re-issued share certificate can be a time consuming formality and frustrates many a Toddington home move. Where a reissued share certificate is needed, you should approach the company officers or managing agents (if relevant) for this as soon as possible.

    • Leasehold Conveyancing in Toddington - Examples of Questions you should ask Prior to Purchasing

      Most Toddington leasehold apartments will incur a service charge for maintenance of the building set by the landlord. If you buy the property you will have to pay this contribution, usually quarterly during the year. This can vary from several hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for large purpose-built blocks. There will also be a ground rent for you to pay annual, ordinarily this is not a significant sum, say around £50-£100 but you should to check it because occasionally it could be many hundreds of pounds. In the main the outlay for major works are not built into the maintenance charges, albeit that some managing agents in Toddington obliged tenants to pay into a reserve fund created for the specific intention of establishing a fund for major repairs or maintenance. Who takes responsibility for maintaining and repairing the block?

    Other Topics

    Lease Extensions in Toddington