My husband and I may need to let out our Toddington garden flat temporarily due to taking a sabbatical. We used a Toddington conveyancing firm in 2002 but they have since shut and we did not have the foresight to seek any advice as to whether the lease prohibits the subletting of the flat. How do we find out?

Even though your previous Toddington conveyancing solicitor is no longer around you can review your lease to check if it allows you to sublet the premises. The accepted inference is that if the deeds are silent, subletting is permitted. There may be a precondition that you are obliged to obtain consent via your landlord or other appropriate person before subletting. This means that you cannot sublet without prior consent. The consent should not be unreasonably withheld. If the lease does not allow you to sublet you should ask your landlord for their consent.

Planning to complete next month on a leasehold property in Toddington. Conveyancing solicitors assured 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 Toddington should include some of the following:

• Whether the lease restricts you from renting out the property, or having a home office for business

You must be told what counts as a Nuisance in the lease

An explanation as to the provision in the lease to pay service charges - with regard to both the building, and the more general rights a leaseholder has

Whether your lease has a provision for a sinking fund?

You should have a good understanding of the insurance provisions

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.

What you can do if a neighbour is in violation of a provision in their lease? For a comprehensive list of information to be contained in your report on your leasehold property in Toddington please enquire of your lawyer in ahead of your conveyancing in Toddington

I am employed by a busy estate agent office in Toddington where we have experienced a number of flat sales put at risk due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given inconsistent advice from local Toddington conveyancing solicitors. Could you confirm whether the seller of a flat can instigate the lease extension formalities for the buyer?

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. The benefit of this is that the buyer can avoid having to sit tight for 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed before, or simultaneously with completion of the sale.

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 buyer.

All being well we will complete our sale of a £425000 flat in Toddington next Friday . The landlords agents has quoted £408 for Landlord’s certificate, building insurance schedule and previous years statements of service charge. Is the landlord entitled to charge exorbitant fees for a leasehold conveyance in Toddington?

Toddington conveyancing on leasehold apartments ordinarily necessitates fees being levied by management companies :

• Completing pre-exchange questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Toddington
• Copies of the building insurance and schedule
• Deeds of covenant upon sale
• Registering of the assignment of the change of lessee after a sale

Your conveyancer will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for Toddington leasehold premises is £350. For Toddington conveyancing transactions it is customary for the seller to pay for these costs. The landlord or their agents are under no legal obligation to answer such questions most will be willing to do so - albeit often at exorbitant prices where the fees bear little relation to the work involved. Unfortunately there is no law that requires fixed charges for administrative tasks. Neither is there any legal time frame by which they are obliged to provide answers.

What makes a Toddington lease unmortgageable?

There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Toddington. Most leases is drafted differently and drafting errors can result in certain provisions are missing. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:

• Repairing obligations to or maintain parts of the building
• 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 will likely cause problems when trying to sell a property primarily because it impacts on the ability to obtain a mortgage on the property. Halifax, Virgin Money, and Platform Home Loans Ltd all have very detailed conveyancing instructions when it comes to what is expected in a lease. If a mortgage lender believes that the lease is problematic they may refuse to grant the mortgage, obliging the purchaser to withdraw.

Toddington Leasehold Conveyancing - Sample of Queries Prior to Purchasing

Make sure you find out if there are any onerous restrictions in the lease. For example plenty of leases prohibit pets being allowed in in a block in Toddington. If you love the propertyin Toddington however your cat can’t make the move with you then you have a very difficult compromise. What is the maintenance charge and ground rent on the apartment? How many of the leaseholders are in arrears for their maintenance charge payments?

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Toddington