I have just appointed agents to market my garden apartment in Totterdown.Conveyancing is yet to be initiated but I have just received a quarterly service charge invoice – Do I pay up?

The sensible thing to do is 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 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. This will smooth the conveyancing process.

I've recently bought a leasehold house in Totterdown. Do I have any liability for service charges relating to a period prior to my ownership?

Where the service charge has already been demanded from the previous lessee and they have not paid you would not usually be personally liable for the arrears. However, your landlord may still be able to take action to forfeit the lease. It is an essential part of leasehold conveyancing for your conveyancer to ensure to have an up to date clear service charge receipt before completion of your purchase. If you have a mortgage this is likely to be a requirement of your lender.

If you purchase part way through an accounting year you may be liable for charges not yet demanded even if they relate to a period prior to your purchase. In such circumstances your conveyancer would normally arrange for the seller to set aside some money to cover their part of the period (usually called a service charge retention).

Can you provide any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Totterdown from the point of view of expediting the sale process?

• Much of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Totterdown can be bypassed where you get in touch lawyers the minute your agents start marketing the property and request that they start to put together the leasehold information needed by the purchasers’ solicitors.
• If you have carried out any alterations to the property would they have required Landlord’s consent? Have you, for example laid down wooden flooring? Most leases in Totterdown state that internal structural changes or addition of wooden flooring necessitate a licence from the Landlord consenting to such works. If you fail to have the paperwork to hand you should not communicate with the landlord without contacting your conveyancer first.

Some Totterdown leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this applies to your lease, it would be prudent to notify your estate agents to make sure that the purchasers obtain bank and professional references. The bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are able to meet 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 actual amount of the service charge so that they can pass this information on to the purchasers or their lawyers.

If there is a history of any disputes with your landlord or managing agents it is very important that these are resolved before the property is put on the market. The buyers and their solicitors will be nervous about purchasing a flat where a dispute is unsettled. You may have to bite the bullet and discharge any arrears of service charge or settle the dispute prior to completion of the sale. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled prior to the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You will still have to reveal particulars of the dispute to the buyers, but it is clearly preferable to present the dispute as over rather than unsettled.

If you are supposed to have a share in the freehold, you should ensure that you hold the original share certificate. Organising a new share certificate is often a lengthy process and frustrates many a Totterdown home move. Where a new share certificate is required, you should approach the company officers or managing agents (if applicable) for this at the earliest opportunity.

All being well we will complete the sale of our £475000 apartment in Totterdown on Friday in a week. The managing agents has quoted £300 for Landlord’s certificate, building insurance schedule and 3 years statements of service charge. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge exorbitant fees for a leasehold conveyance in Totterdown?

For the majority of leasehold sales in Totterdown conveyancing will involve, questions about the management of a building inevitably needing to be answered directly by the freeholder or its agent, this includes :

• Addressing pre-exchange questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Totterdown
• 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 Totterdown leasehold property is £350. For Totterdown 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.

What makes a Totterdown lease problematic?

Leasehold conveyancing in Totterdown is not unique. Most leases are individual and drafting errors can result in certain sections are erroneous. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:

• Repairing obligations to or maintain parts 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 as they can affect a potential buyer’s ability to obtain a mortgage. Lloyds TSB Bank, Norwich and Peterborough Building Society, and Alliance & Leicester all have very detailed conveyancing instructions when it comes to what is expected in a lease. If a mortgage lender believes that the lease does not cover certain provisions they may refuse to grant the mortgage, forcing the buyer to withdraw.

Totterdown Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - A selection of Questions you should ask before buying

Is the freehold owned jointly by the tenants? Plenty Totterdown leasehold flats will be liable to pay a service bill for the upkeep of the building set by the landlord. Where you purchase the apartment you will have to pay this contribution, normally in instalments throughout the year. This can vary from two or three hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for buildings with lifts and large common areas. In all likelihood there will be a ground rent to be met yearly, this is usually not a exorbitant sum, say about £50-£100 but you need to enquire it because sometimes it could be many hundreds of pounds. It is important to be aware whether redecorating or some other significant cost is coming up to be shared amongst the leaseholders and will dramatically impact the level of the maintenance costs or require a specific invoice.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Totterdown