Fixed-fee leasehold conveyancing in Verwood:

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When it comes to leasehold conveyancing in Verwood, you will need to instruct a conveyancing practitioner with leasehold experience. Whether your mortgage company is to be Halifax, RBS or NatWest make sure you find a lawyer on their panel. Feel free to use our search tool

Verwood leasehold conveyancing Example Support Desk Enquiries

There are only Sixty One years unexpired on my lease in Verwood. I now want to extend my lease but my landlord is can not be found. What options are available to me?

On the basis that you meet the appropriate requirements, 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 enable the lease to be lengthened by the magistrate. You will be obliged to demonstrate that you or your lawyers have done all that could be expected to locate the freeholder. On the whole an enquiry agent would be useful to carry out a search and to produce a report which can be used as evidence that the freeholder is indeed missing. It is advisable to get professional help from a solicitor both on proving the landlord’s absence and the application to the County Court covering Verwood.

I am looking at a couple of apartments in Verwood both have approximately 50 years remaining on the leases. Will this present a problem?

There are plenty of short leases in Verwood. The lease is a legal document that entitles you to use the property for a prescribed time frame. As a lease gets shorter the value of the lease decreases and results in it becoming more expensive to acquire a lease extension. This is why it is advisable to extend the lease term. More often than not it is difficulties arise selling premises with a short lease as mortgage companies less inclined to grant a loan on such properties. Lease extension can be a difficult process. We advise that you get professional help from a solicitor and surveyor with experience in this field

Last month I purchased a leasehold property in Verwood. Do I have any liability for service charges for periods before my ownership?

In a situation 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. 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).

I work for a reputable estate agent office in Verwood where we see a number of leasehold sales derailed as a result of leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given inconsistent advice from local Verwood conveyancing firms. Please can you clarify whether the owner of a flat can commence the lease extension process for the buyer?

As long as the seller has owned the lease 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. This means that the buyer can avoid having to sit tight for 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed prior to, or at the same time as completion of the sale.

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 advice for leasehold conveyancing in Verwood from the perspective of speeding up the sale process?

  • Much of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Verwood can be avoided if you get in touch lawyers the minute your agents start advertising the property and ask them to put together the leasehold information which will be required by the buyers conveyancers.
  • Some Verwood leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this applies to your lease, you should place the estate agents on notice to make sure that the purchasers put in hand bank and professional references. Any bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are able to meet the annual 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 solicitors.
  • If you have had conflict with your landlord or managing agents it is very important that these are resolved prior to the flat being put on the market. The purchasers and their solicitors will be nervous about purchasing a property where there is an ongoing dispute. You may need to swallow your pride and discharge any arrears of service charge or resolve the dispute prior to the buyers completing the purchase. 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 details of the dispute to the buyers, but it is clearly preferable to present the dispute as over as opposed to unsettled.
  • If you are supposed to have a share in the freehold, you should make sure that you are holding the original share certificate. Obtaining a duplicate share certificate is often a time consuming process and delays many a Verwood home move. If a new share is required, do contact the company director and secretary or managing agents (if relevant) for this at the earliest opportunity.
  • You may think that you are aware of the number of years left on your lease but it would be advisable double-check via your conveyancers. A purchaser's lawyer will be unlikely to recommend their client to proceed with the purchase of a leasehold property the remaining number of years is under 75 years. In the circumstances it is important 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 property on the market for sale.

    • Leasehold Conveyancing in Verwood - Examples of Questions you should consider Prior to Purchasing

      How much is the ground rent and service charge? The prefered form of lease structure is where the freehold reversion is in the ownership of the leaseholders. In this scenario the tenants enjoy control and even though a managing agent is frequently employed where it is bigger than a house conversion, the managing agent is directed by the tenants. Many Verwood leasehold flats will be liable to pay a service charge for the upkeep of the block set on behalf of the landlord. Where you buy the property you will have to pay this liability, normally quarterly accross the year. This may be anything from two or three hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for buildings with lifts and large common grounds. There will also be a rentcharge to be met annual, normally this is not a exorbitant figure, say around £25-£75 but you need to check it because on occasion it could be many hundreds of pounds.

    Other Topics

    Lease Extensions in Verwood