Sample questions relating to West Thurrock leasehold conveyancing
I have recently realised that I have Seventy years unexpired on my flat in West Thurrock. I now want to get lease extension but my freeholder is absent. What should I do?
If 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 an order to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will enable the lease to be granted an extra 90 years by the magistrate. You will be obliged to prove that you have done all that could be expected to track down the lessor. For most situations a specialist may be helpful to try and locate and to produce a report to be used as proof that the landlord is indeed missing. It is advisable to get professional help from a property lawyer in relation to proving the landlord’s disappearance and the application to the County Court overseeing West Thurrock.
Looking forward to exchange soon on a garden flat in West Thurrock. Conveyancing solicitors have said that they will have a report out to me within the next couple of days. What should I be looking out for?
The report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in West Thurrock should include some of the following:
- You should receive a copy of the lease
Estate agents have just been given the go-ahead to market my 2 bed flat in West Thurrock.Conveyancing solicitors are to be appointed soon but I have just had a quarterly service charge invoice – Do I pay up?
The sensible thing to do is clear the service charge as normal because all ground rent and service charges will be apportioned on completion, so you will be reimbursed by the buyer for the period running from after the completion date to the next payment date. Most management companies will not acknowledge the buyer unless the service charges have been paid and are up to date so it is important for both buyer and seller for the seller to show that they are up to date. Having a clear account will assist your cause and will leave you no worse off financially.
I am a negotiator for a busy estate agent office in West Thurrock where we have experienced a number of leasehold sales put at risk as a result of leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have received contradictory information from local West Thurrock conveyancing firms. Can you confirm whether the owner of a flat can instigate the lease extension process 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 buyer need not have 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 before, 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 buyer.
We expect to complete our sale of a £450000 maisonette in West Thurrock next week. The freeholder has quoted £324 for Landlord’s certificate, building insurance schedule and previous years service charge statements. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge such fees for a leasehold conveyance in West Thurrock?
West Thurrock conveyancing on leasehold apartments normally requires the buyer’s solicitor submitting enquiries for the landlord to address. Although the landlord is not legally bound to address these enquiries the majority will be content to do so. They are entitled invoice a reasonable administration fee for responding to questions or supplying documentation. There is no upper cap for such fees. The average costs for the paperwork that you are referring to is over three hundred pounds, in some transactions it is in excess of £800. The administration charge levied by the landlord must be sent together with a synopsis of rights and obligations in respect of administration fees, without which the charge is not strictly payable. In reality one has no choice but to pay whatever is requested of you if you want to sell the property.
I am the proprietor of a a ground floor purpose built flat in West Thurrock. Given that I can not reach agreement with the landlord, can the Leasehold valuation Tribunal determine the amount due for the purchase of the freehold?
Where there is a missing freeholder or where there is dispute about the premium for a lease extension, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 it is possible to make an application to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal to arrive at the price payable.
An example of a Lease Extension decision for a West Thurrock flat is Various @ Colombus Square in January 2012. the Tribunal calculated the premiums to be paid for new leases for each of the flats in Mariners Walk to be £3822 and the premium to be paid for the new lease of 2 Knights Court to be £4439. This case related to 13 flats. The the unexpired residue of the current lease was 76 years.
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