Having had my offer accepted I require leasehold conveyancing in Victoria. Before I get started I require certainty as to the number of years remaining on the lease.

If the lease is registered - and most are in Victoria - then the leasehold title will always include the basic details 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.

There are only Sixty One years remaining on my lease in Victoria. I need 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 apply to the County Court for for permission to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will enable the lease to be granted an extra 90 years by the Court. However, you will be required to demonstrate that you have done all that could be expected to track down the landlord. On the whole an enquiry agent would be helpful to try and locate and prepare a report which can be used as proof that the freeholder can not be located. It is advisable to get professional help from a solicitor in relation to devolving into the landlord’s absence and the vesting order request to the County Court overseeing Victoria.

I am attracted to a two maisonettes in Victoria which have in the region of 50 years left on the leases. Should I regard a short lease as a deal breaker?

There is no doubt about it. A leasehold apartment in Victoria is a wasting asset as a result of the shortening lease. The nearer the lease gets to zero years unexpired, the more it reduces the marketability of the property. The majority of buyers and banks, leases with less than 75 years become less and less marketable. On a more positive note, leaseholders can extend their leases by serving a Section 42 Notice. One stipulation is that they must have owned the property for two years (unlike a Section 13 notice for purchasing the freehold, when leaseholders can participate from day one of ownership). When successful, they will have the right to an extension of 90 years to the current term and ground rent is effectively reduced to zero. Before moving forward with a purchase of a residence with a short lease term remaining you should talk to a solicitor specialising in lease extensions and leasehold enfranchisement. We are are happy to put you in touch with Victoria conveyancing experts who will explain the options available to you during an initial telephone conversation free of charge. A more straightforward and quicker method of extending would be to contact your landlord directly and sound him out on the prospect of extending the lease They may agree to a smaller lump sum and an increase in the ground rent, but to shorter extension terms in return. You need to ensure that any new terms represent good long-term value compared with the standard benefits of the Section 42 Notice and that onerous clauses are not inserted into any redrafting of the lease.

Can you provide any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Victoria with the intention of speeding up the sale process?

• Much of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Victoria can be reduced where you instruct lawyers as soon as your agents start marketing the property and request that they start to collate the leasehold information which will be required by the buyers solicitors.
• A minority of Victoria leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this is the case, you should notify your estate agents to make sure that the purchasers obtain financial (bank) and professional references. Any bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are 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 buyers or their lawyers.

We expect to complete our sale of a £300000 garden flat in Victoria on Thursday in a week. The managing agents has quoted £420 for Landlord’s certificate, insurance certificate and 3 years service charge statements. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge an administration fee for a leasehold conveyance in Victoria?

Victoria conveyancing on leasehold maisonettes normally requires the purchaser’s solicitor submitting enquiries for the landlord to answer. Although the landlord is not legally bound to respond to these enquiries the majority will be willing to do so. They are entitled charge a reasonable administration fee for answering questions or supplying documentation. There is no upper cap for such fees. The average costs for the information that you are referring to is over three hundred pounds, in some transactions it is above £800. The management information fee required by the landlord must be sent together with a synopsis of rights and obligations in respect of administration charges, otherwise the invoice is not strictly payable. In reality you have little choice but to pay whatever is requested of you should you wish to exchange contracts with the buyer.

I am the leaseholder of a ground floor flat in Victoria. Given that I can not reach agreement with the freeholder, can the Leasehold valuation Tribunal determine the premium payable for a lease extension?

if there is a missing freeholder or if there is disagreement about what the lease extension should cost, under the relevant legislation you can apply to the LVT to arrive at the price payable.

An example of a Lease Extension decision for a Victoria premises is Flats 12A & 19, Evelyn Mansions Carlisle Place in June 2009. The Tribunal held that the price to be paid for the new lease of Flat 12A is £168,824, For the other flat the price was set at £169,110 This case affected 2 flats. The unexpired term was 56 years.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Victoria