Having checked my lease I have discovered that there are only Fifty years unexpired on my lease in Wareham. I now wish to extend my lease but my landlord is absent. 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 apply to the County Court for for permission to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will mean that your lease can be extended by the magistrate. However, you will be required to demonstrate that you or your lawyers have used your best endeavours to find the freeholder. On the whole an enquiry agent should be helpful to carry out a search and to produce an expert document which can be accepted by the court as evidence that the freeholder is indeed missing. It is advisable to get professional help from a solicitor in relation to investigating the landlord’s disappearance and the vesting order request to the County Court overseeing Wareham.

I've recently bought a leasehold house in Wareham. Do I have any liability for service charges for periods before my ownership?

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).

What advice can you give us when it comes to appointing a Wareham conveyancing practice to deal with our lease extension?

If you are instructing a solicitor for lease extension works (regardless if they are a Wareham conveyancing firm) it is imperative that he or she should be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of work. We suggested that you make enquires with several firms including non Wareham conveyancing practices prior to instructing a firm. If the firm is ALEP accredited then that’s a bonus. Some following of questions could be helpful:

• How experienced is the practice with lease extension legislation?
• How many lease extensions has the firm conducted in Wareham in the last year?

Do you have any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Wareham with the purpose of saving time on the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Wareham can be reduced if you appoint lawyers as soon as you market your property and ask them to put together the leasehold information needed by the buyers lawyers.
• In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s consent? In particular have you installed wooden flooring? Most leases in Wareham state that internal structural changes or addition of wooden flooring require a licence issued by the Landlord approving such changes. Should you fail to have the paperwork to hand do not contact the landlord without checking with your solicitor first.
• If there is a history of conflict with your landlord or managing agents it is very important that these are settled before the property is put on the market. The purchasers and their solicitors will be nervous about purchasing a property where there is an ongoing dispute. You will have to accept that you will have to pay any arrears of service charge or resolve the dispute prior to completion of the sale. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled ahead of 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 better to reveal the dispute as over rather than unsettled.
• If you have the benefit of shareholding in the freehold, you should ensure that you have the original share certificate. Organising a replacement share certificate can be a time consuming process and delays many a Wareham conveyancing transaction. If a duplicate share certificate is required, do contact the company director and secretary or managing agents (where relevant) for this at the earliest opportunity.
• You may think that you are aware of the number of years remaining on your lease but it would be wise to double-check via your conveyancers. A purchaser's conveyancer will be unlikely to recommend their client to proceed with the purchase of a leasehold property the lease term is below 80 years. It is therefore essential at an early stage that you identify whether the lease term requires a lease extension. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your property on the market for sale.

What makes a Wareham lease problematic?

There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Wareham. All leases is drafted differently and drafting errors can result in certain sections are not included. The following missing provisions could result in a defective lease:

• Repairing obligations to or maintain elements of the premises
• Insurance obligations
• Clauses dealing with recovering service charges for expenditure on the building or common parts.
• Service charge per centages that don't add up correctly leaving a shortfall

You could have a problem when selling your property if you have a defective lease as they can affect a potential buyer’s ability to obtain a mortgage. Birmingham Midshires, Chelsea Building Society, and Godiva Mortgages Ltd all have very detailed requirements when it comes to what is expected in a lease. If a mortgage lender believes that the lease is problematic they may refuse to provide security, forcing the buyer to withdraw.

Wareham Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - Sample of Queries before Purchasing

On the whole the cost for major works tend not to be included within service charges, albeit that there some managing agents in Wareham obliged leaseholders to contribute towards a sinking fund created for the specific intention of building a fund for major works. You will want to find out as much as possible about the company managing the block as they can either make living at the property much simpler or problematic. As the proprietor of a leasehold property you are frequently at the mercy of the managing agents both financially and when it comes to daily matters such as the tidiness of the communal areas. Enquire of other people what they think of their service. On a final note, investigate as to the dates that the maintenance fees are due to the appropriate party and precisely what it includes. What is the yearly service fee and ground rent?