Due to complete next month on a leasehold property in Tremeirchion. Conveyancing lawyers inform me that they report fully on Monday. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?

The report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in Tremeirchion should include some of the following:

• You should be sent a copy of the lease

My wife and I purchased a leasehold house in Tremeirchion. Conveyancing and Bank of Ireland mortgage organised. A letter has just been received from someone claiming to own the freehold. It included a demand for arrears of ground rent dating back to 1993. The conveyancing solicitor in Tremeirchion who acted for me is not around.Do I pay?

First contact the Land Registry to make sure that this person is indeed the new freeholder. You do not need to incur the fees of a Tremeirchion conveyancing firm to do this as you can do this on the Land Registry website for less than a fiver. You should note that regardless, even if this is the rightful freeholder, under the Limitation Act 1980 the limitation period for recovery of ground rent is six years.

I've recently bought a leasehold flat in Tremeirchion. Am I liable to pay service charges relating to a period prior to completion of my purchase?

Where the service charge has already been demanded from the previous owner and they have not paid you would not usually be personally liable for the arrears. Strange as it may seem, your landlord may still be able to take action to forfeit the lease. A critical element of leasehold conveyancing for your conveyancer to be sure 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).

I am a negotiator for a busy estate agency in Tremeirchion where we see a few leasehold sales put at risk as a result of short leases. I have received conflicting advice from local Tremeirchion conveyancing solicitors. Can you shed some light as to 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 start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. This means that the proposed purchaser can avoid having to wait 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed before, or at the same time as completion of the sale.

An alternative approach is 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.

Are there frequently found problems that you see in leases for Tremeirchion properties?

There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Tremeirchion. All leases is drafted differently and legal mistakes in the legal wording can result in certain sections are wrong. The following missing provisions could result in a defective lease:

• Repairing obligations to or maintain parts of the building
• Insurance obligations
• A provision for the recovery of money spent for the benefit of another party.
• Maintenance charge proportions which don’t add up to the correct percentage

A defective lease will likely cause issues when trying to sell a property primarily because it impacts on the ability to obtain a mortgage on the property. Santander, Skipton Building Society, and Bank of Ireland all have very detailed requirements when it comes to what is expected in a lease. If a mortgage lender believes that the lease is defective they may refuse to grant the mortgage, obliging the buyer to pull out.

Tremeirchion Leasehold Conveyancing - A selection of Questions you should ask Prior to Purchasing

Many Tremeirchion leasehold apartments will have a service charge for the upkeep of the block levied by the landlord. Should you purchase the apartment you will have to meet this charge, normally quarterly throughout the year. This could vary from several hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for large purpose-built buildings. In all likelihood there will be a rentcharge to be met yearly, this is usually not a large figure, say approximately £25-£75 but you should to check as sometimes it can be many hundreds of pounds. What restrictions exist in the Tremeirchion Lease? This question is important as a) areas may cause problems in the block as the communal areas may begin to deteriorate where services are not paid for b) if the leasehold owners have an issue with the running of the building you will need to know about it

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Tremeirchion