I only have Seventy years left on my flat in Torrington. I am keen to get lease extension but my freeholder is missing. What should I do?

If you qualify, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can submit an application to the County Court for for permission to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will mean that your lease can be granted an extra 90 years by the magistrate. You will be obliged to demonstrate that you have made all reasonable attempts to find the lessor. For most situations a specialist would be helpful to try and locate and prepare a report which can be used as evidence that the landlord can not be located. It is advisable to get professional help from a conveyancer in relation to devolving into the landlord’s disappearance and the application to the County Court covering Torrington.

I have just started marketing my basement flat in Torrington.Conveyancing is yet to be initiated but I have just had a half-yearly maintenance charge invoice – should I leave it to the buyer to sort out?

The sensible thing to do is pay the invoice 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 managing agents will not acknowledge the buyer until 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. Having a clear account will assist your cause and will leave you no worse off financially.

I am employed by a long established estate agent office in Torrington where we have experienced a number of flat sales derailed due to short leases. I have received contradictory information from local Torrington conveyancing firms. Can you shed some light as to whether the vendor of a flat can instigate the lease extension formalities for the buyer?

Provided that the seller has owned the lease for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. The benefit of this is that the buyer need not have 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.

Alternatively, it may be possible to agree the lease extension with the freeholder 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 provide any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Torrington from the perspective of speeding up the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Torrington can be bypassed if you get in touch lawyers the minute you market your property and ask them to collate the leasehold information needed by the buyers representatives.
• The majority landlords or managing agents in Torrington levy fees for providing management packs for a leasehold homes. You or your lawyers should discover 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 typical amount of time it takes to receive management information is three weeks. It is the most common reason for delay in leasehold conveyancing in Torrington.

In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s consent? Have you, for example laid down wooden flooring? Torrington leases often stipulate that internal structural alterations or installing wooden flooring calls for a licence issued by the Landlord approving such alterations. Where you fail to have the approvals to hand do not communicate with the landlord without contacting your conveyancer first.

A minority of Torrington leases require Landlord’s consent to the sale and approval of the buyers. If this applies to your lease, it would be prudent to place the estate agents on notice to make sure that the purchasers put in hand bank and professional references. Any bank reference should make it clear that the buyer is financially capable of paying the yearly 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 service charge figures so that they can pass this information on to the purchasers or their lawyers.

You believe that you know the number of years remaining on your lease but it would be wise to verify this by asking your conveyancers. A buyer’s lawyer will not be happy to advise their client to to exchange contracts if the remaining number of years is less than 75 years. In the circumstances it is essential at an as soon as possible that you consider whether the lease for your property needs extending. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your premises on the market for sale.

If all goes to plan we aim to complete our sale of a £125000 maisonette in Torrington next Tuesday . The freeholder has quoted £420 for Landlord’s certificate, insurance certificate and 3 years service charge statements. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge such fees for a leasehold conveyance in Torrington?

Torrington conveyancing on leasehold maisonettes nine out of ten times necessitates administration charges levied by landlords agents :

• Addressing conveyancing due diligence questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Torrington
• Supplying insurance information
• Deeds of covenant upon sale
• Registering of the assignment of the change of lessee after a sale

Your lawyer will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for Torrington leasehold property is £350. For Torrington 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 required to supply the information.

Torrington Leasehold Conveyancing - A selection of Queries before Purchasing

Does this lease have in excess of 82 years remaining? The best form of lease arrangement is a share of the freehold. In this situation the tenants have being in charge if their destiny and although a managing agent is frequently employed where it is larger than a house conversion, the managing agent is directed by the tenants. How much is the yearly maintenance fee and ground rent?

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Torrington