Having had my offer accepted I require leasehold conveyancing in Toddington. Before diving in I require certainty as to the unexpired term of the lease.

If the lease is recorded at the land registry - and most are in Toddington - then the leasehold title will always include the short particulars 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.

My husband and I may need to let out our Toddington ground floor flat temporarily due to taking a sabbatical. We used a Toddington conveyancing practice in 2004 but they have since shut and we did not have the foresight to get any advice as to whether the lease prohibits the subletting of the flat. How do we find out?

Even though your last Toddington conveyancing solicitor is no longer around you can review your lease to check if it allows you to sublet the property. The accepted inference is that if the lease is non-specific, subletting is permitted. There may be a precondition that you must obtain consent via your landlord or other appropriate person prior to subletting. The net result is you not allowed to sublet in the absence of prior consent. Such consent must not not be unreasonably withheld. If the lease does not allow you to sublet you should ask your landlord if they are willing to waive this restriction.

I work for a busy estate agent office in Toddington where we see a number of leasehold sales jeopardised as a result of short leases. I have been given inconsistent advice from local Toddington conveyancing firms. Please can you confirm whether the seller of a flat can start 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 kick-start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. This means that the buyer can avoid having to wait 2 years to extend their lease. 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 disposal of the property.

An alternative approach is 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.

Can you offer any advice when it comes to appointing a Toddington conveyancing practice to carry out our lease extension conveyancing?

When appointing a conveyancer for your lease extension (regardless if they are a Toddington conveyancing firm) it is essential that they be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of conveyancing. We advise that you speak with several firms including non Toddington conveyancing practices before you instructing a firm. Where the conveyancing practice is ALEP accredited then so much the better. Some following of questions might be useful:

• How familiar is the firm with lease extension legislation?

What makes a Toddington lease unacceptable for security purposes?

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

• A provision to repair to or maintain elements of the property
• A duty to insure the building
• Clauses dealing with recovering service charges for expenditure on the building or common parts.
• Maintenance charge proportions which don’t add up to the correct percentage

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. Birmingham Midshires, Bank of Scotland, and Britannia 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 purchaser to withdraw.

Toddington Leasehold Conveyancing - Sample of Queries before buying

In the main the cost for major works are not included within service charges, although some managing agents in Toddington require tenants to pay into a sinking fund created for the specific intention of building a fund for larger works. Be sure to enquire if there are any onerous prohibitions in the lease. For example some leases prohibit pets being permitted in in a block in Toddington. If you love the propertyin Toddington but your cat can’t make the move with you then you will be presented with a hard choice. Where a Toddington lease has less than 80 years it will have adverse implications on the value of the flat. It is worth checking with your lender that they are willing to lend given the lease term. A short lease means that you will most likely have to extend the lease at some point and you need to have some idea of how much this will be. For most Toddingtonlease extensions you would be required to have been the owner of the property for a couple of years before you are eligible to carry out a lease extension.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Toddington