I am attracted to a couple of apartments in Woolavington which have in the region of forty five years remaining on the lease term. Will this present a problem?

There are plenty of short leases in Woolavington. The lease is a right to use the property for a prescribed time frame. As a lease gets shorter the saleability of the lease deteriorate and it becomes more costly to extend the lease. For this reason it is often a good idea to increase the term of the lease. It is often difficulties arise selling premises with a short lease as mortgage companies less inclined to grant a loan on properties of this type. Lease extension can be a protracted process. We recommend you seek professional help from a conveyancer and surveyor with experience in this field

Last month I purchased a leasehold property in Woolavington. Do I have any liability for service charges relating to a period prior to completion of my purchase?

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 employed by a busy estate agency in Woolavington where we see a number of flat sales put at risk as a result of short leases. I have received conflicting advice from local Woolavington conveyancing solicitors. Could you shed some light as to whether the vendor of a flat can initiate 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 commence the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. This means that the proposed purchaser can avoid having to sit tight for 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed 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 purchaser.

Do you have any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Woolavington from the perspective of speeding up the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Woolavington can be reduced if you get in touch lawyers the minute you market your property and ask them to put together the leasehold documentation needed by the purchasers’ solicitors.
• In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s permission? In particular have you laid down wooden flooring? Woolavington leases often stipulate that internal structural changes or installing wooden flooring necessitate a licence from the Landlord acquiescing to such changes. Where you fail to have the paperwork to hand you should not contact the landlord without checking with your solicitor before hand.

In relation to leasehold conveyancing in Woolavington what are the most frequent lease defects?

Leasehold conveyancing in Woolavington is not unique. Most leases are unique and legal mistakes in the legal wording can result in certain clauses are wrong. The following missing provisions could result in a defective lease:

• Repairing obligations to or maintain elements of the building
• Insurance obligations
• A provision for the recovery of money spent for the benefit of another party.
• Maintenance charge proportions which don’t add up to the correct percentage

A defective lease can cause issues when trying to sell a property primarily because it impacts on the ability to obtain a mortgage on the property. Birmingham Midshires, Norwich and Peterborough Building Society, and Godiva Mortgages Ltd all have very detailed conveyancing instructions when it comes to what is expected in a lease. Where a lender has been advised by their lawyers that the lease is defective they may refuse to grant the mortgage, obliging the buyer to pull out.

I inherited a ground floor flat in Woolavington, conveyancing was carried out half a dozen years ago. Can you let me have an estimated range of the fair premium for a lease extension? Similar flats in Woolavington with over 90 years remaining are worth £237,000. The ground rent is £65 charged once a year. The lease expires on 21st October 2093

With only 68 years left to run we estimate the price of your lease extension to be between £10,500 and £12,000 as well as professional fees.

The suggested premium range that we have given is a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we are not able to supply a more accurate figure without more comprehensive investigations. Do not use the figures in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There may be additional issues that need to be taken into account and clearly you should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. You should not move forward placing reliance on this information before seeking the advice of a professional.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Woolavington