Harry (my fiance) and I may need to rent out our Welton 1st floor flat for a while due to taking a sabbatical. We instructed a Welton conveyancing practice in 2001 but they have closed and we did not think at the time get any advice as to whether the lease prohibits the subletting of the flat. How do we find out?

Notwithstanding that your last Welton conveyancing lawyer is not around you can review your lease to see if you are permitted to let out the premises. The accepted inference is that if the lease is non-specific, subletting is allowed. Quite often there is a prerequisite that you need to obtain consent via your landlord or other appropriate person before subletting. The net result is you not allowed to sublet in the absence of prior permission. The consent is not allowed to be unreasonably withheld. If the lease prohibits you from letting out the property you will need to ask your landlord if they are willing to waive this restriction.

I today plan to offer on a house that appears to tick a lot of boxes, at a great price which is making it more attractive. I have subsequently discovered that it's a leasehold as opposed to freehold. I am assuming that there are particular concerns purchasing a leasehold house in Welton. Conveyancing advisers have are about to be instructed. Will my lawyers set out the implications of buying a leasehold house in Welton ?

The majority of houses in Welton are freehold and not leasehold. In this scenario it’s worth having a local conveyancer who is familiar with the area can help the conveyancing process. We note that you are buying in Welton in which case you should be looking for a Welton conveyancing practitioner and be sure that they have experience in transacting on leasehold houses. First you will need to check the number of years remaining. As a lessee you will not be entirely free to do whatever you want with the house. The lease comes with conditions for example requiring the landlord’spermission to conduct alterations. It may be necessary to pay a maintenance charge towards the maintenance of the communal areas where the property is located on an estate. Your conveyancer should advise you fully on all the issues.

I am employed by a reputable estate agency in Welton where we have witnessed a number of leasehold sales derailed as a result of short leases. I have received contradictory information from local Welton conveyancing solicitors. Can you clarify whether the seller of a flat can instigate the lease extension process for the buyer?

Provided that 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 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 has to be done prior to, or simultaneously with 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 buyer.

Do you have any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Welton from the point of view of speeding up the sale process?

• Much of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Welton can be bypassed if you appoint lawyers the minute you market your property and request that they start to put together the leasehold documentation which will be required by the buyers conveyancers.
• A minority of Welton 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 obtain financial (bank) and professional references. The 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 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 conflict with your freeholder or managing agents it is essential that these are resolved prior to the flat being marketed. The buyers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a property where there is a current dispute. You may need to swallow your pride and pay any arrears of service charge or settle the dispute prior to the buyers completing the purchase. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled ahead of the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You are still duty bound to disclose particulars of the dispute to the purchasers, but it is clearly preferable to reveal the dispute as over as opposed to unsettled.

If you have the benefit of shareholding in the Management Company, you should make sure that you are holding the original share document. Organising a new share certificate can be a time consuming formality and frustrates many a Welton conveyancing transaction. If a reissued share is necessary, do contact the company director and secretary or managing agents (if applicable) for this at the earliest opportunity.

You may think that you are aware of the number of years left on your lease but you should verify this by asking your conveyancers. A purchaser's conveyancer will be unlikely to recommend their client to where the lease term is under 75 years. In the circumstances it is important at an as soon as possible that you identify whether the lease term requires a lease extension. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your premises on the market for sale.

If all goes to plan we aim to complete our sale of a £175000 flat in Welton in just under a week. The managing agents has quoted £384 for Certificate of Compliance, insurance certificate and 3 years statements of service charge. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge an administration fee for a leasehold conveyance in Welton?

For the majority of leasehold sales in Welton 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 Welton
• Supplying insurance information
• Deeds of covenant upon sale
• Registering of the assignment of the change of lessee after a sale

Your lawyer will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for Welton leasehold property is £350. For Welton 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 obliged to supply the information.

Welton Leasehold Conveyancing - A selection of Questions you should consider before buying

Are any of leasehold owners in arrears of their service charge payments? It would be prudent to enquire if there is anything that is prohibited in the lease. For example it is very common in Welton leases that pets are not permitted in in a block in Welton. If you like the propertyin Welton but your cat can’t move with you then you will be presented with a difficult determination. Many Welton leasehold flats will incur a service charge for the upkeep of the building set on behalf of the landlord. Where you acquire the apartment you will have to pay this charge, usually periodically accross the year. This could vary from a few hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for blocks with lifts and large common areas. In all probability there will be a rentcharge to be met annual, this is usually not a large figure, say around £50-£100 but you should to check as sometimes it could be prohibitively expensive.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Welton