Leasehold Conveyancing in Woburn Sands - Get a Quote from the leasehold experts approved by your lender

Get a Quote

Leasehold conveyancing in Woburn Sands is more complex than freehold. Your home move will be smoother where you choose a lawyer with a wealth of experience of leasehold conveyancing in Woburn Sands and next step up in loc. The lawyers we recommend have been approved by your lender so use our search tool to check.

Examples of recent questions relating to leasehold conveyancing in Woburn Sands

Due to exchange soon on a garden flat in Woburn Sands. Conveyancing solicitors have said that they report fully next week. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?

Your report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in Woburn Sands should include some of the following:

  • Do you need to have carpet in the flat or are you allowed wood flooring?
  • You should be told what counts as a Nuisance in the lease
  • Repair and maintenance of the flat
  • I don't know whether the lease allows me to alter or improve anything in the flat - you should know whether it applies to all alterations or just structural alteration, and whether consent is required
  • Responsibility for repairing the window frames
  • What options are open to you if a neighbour breach a clause of their lease?
  • What the implications are if you breach a clause of your lease? For details of the information to be contained in your report on your leasehold property in Woburn Sands please ask your solicitor in ahead of your conveyancing in Woburn Sands

    • Last month I purchased a leasehold property in Woburn Sands. Am I liable to pay service charges for periods before my ownership?

    Where the service charge has already been demanded from the previous lessee 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 am a negotiator for a busy estate agency in Woburn Sands where we have witnessed a few leasehold sales derailed due to short leases. I have been given inconsistent advice from local Woburn Sands conveyancing solicitors. Please can you clarify whether the vendor of a flat can commence 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 need not have to wait 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 disposal of the property.

    An alternative approach is to extend the lease informally by agreement with the landlord 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.

    What advice can you give us when it comes to appointing a Woburn Sands conveyancing firm to deal with our lease extension?

    If you are instructing a property lawyer for lease extension works (regardless if they are a Woburn Sands conveyancing practice) it is essential that they be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of work. We advise that you speak with two or three firms including non Woburn Sands conveyancing practices prior to instructing a firm. If the firm is ALEP accredited then so much the better. Some following of questions could be helpful:

    • How experienced is the practice with lease extension legislation?
  • Can they put you in touch with client in Woburn Sands who can give a testimonial?

    • Do you have any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Woburn Sands with the purpose of speeding up the sale process?

    • Much of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Woburn Sands can be bypassed if you instruct lawyers as soon as your agents start advertising the property and request that they start to collate the leasehold information which will be required by the purchasers’ representatives.
    • If you have carried out any alterations to the residence would they have required Landlord’s approval? Have you, for example laid down wooden flooring? Most leases in Woburn Sands state that internal structural alterations or addition of wooden flooring require a licence from the Landlord consenting to such works. Should you fail to have the approvals to hand you should not communicate with the landlord without checking with your lawyer in advance.
  • A minority of Woburn Sands leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this is the case, you should place the estate agents on notice to make sure that the purchasers put in hand financial (bank) and professional references. The bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are financially capable of paying 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 buyers or their lawyers.
  • If you have had conflict with your landlord or managing agents it is essential that these are resolved before the property is put on the market. The purchasers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a flat where a dispute is unsettled. You will have to accept that you will have to discharge any arrears of service charge or resolve the dispute prior to completion of the sale. 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 particulars of the dispute to the buyers, but it is better to reveal the dispute as over rather than ongoing.
  • If you have the benefit of shareholding in the freehold, you should make sure that you hold the original share document. Organising a new share certificate is often a time consuming process and slows down many a Woburn Sands conveyancing transaction. Where a reissued share is necessary, do contact the company director and secretary or managing agents (where relevant) for this at the earliest opportunity.

    • Leasehold Conveyancing in Woburn Sands - Examples of Queries before Purchasing

      The answer will be useful as a) areas could cause problems for the block as the communal areas may begin to deteriorate if maintenance remain unpaid b) if the leaseholders have an issue with the running of the building you will wish to have all the details If a Woburn Sands lease has no more than eighty years it will have adverse implications on the marketability of the property. It is worth checking with your lender that they are willing to lend given the lease term. Leases with fewer than 80 years remaining means that you will most likely have to extend the lease sooner rather than later and it is worth finding out how much this will be. Remember, in most cases you will need to own the residence for a couple of years before you are legally able to exercise a lease extension. How long is the Lease?

    Other Topics

    Lease Extensions in Woburn Sands