Top Five Questions relating to Bedford leasehold conveyancing
My partner and I may need to let out our Bedford basement flat for a while due to a career opportunity. We used a Bedford conveyancing practice in 2001 but they have since shut and we did not think at the time get any guidance as to whether the lease allows us to sublet. How do we find out?
Notwithstanding that your previous Bedford conveyancing solicitor is no longer around you can check your lease to check if it allows you to sublet the apartment. The accepted inference is that if the deeds are silent, subletting is allowed. There may be a precondition that you are obliged to seek permission via your landlord or other appropriate person prior to subletting. This means that you cannot sublet in the absence of prior consent. Such consent is not allowed to be unreasonably withheld. If your lease does not allow you to sublet you should ask your landlord if they are willing to waive this restriction.
Having checked my lease I have discovered that there are only Sixty One years remaining on my lease in Bedford. I am keen to get lease extension but my freeholder is can not be found. What are my options?
If you qualify, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can submit an application 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 Court. You will be obliged to demonstrate that you or your lawyers have used your best endeavours to locate the lessor. On the whole a specialist may be helpful to carry out a search and to produce an expert document which can be used as proof that the landlord is indeed missing. It is advisable to get professional help from a solicitor in relation to proving the landlord’s absence and the vesting order request to the County Court covering Bedford.
Last month I purchased a leasehold property in Bedford. Am I liable to pay 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. 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 long established estate agency in Bedford where we see a few flat sales jeopardised as a result of short leases. I have received contradictory information from local Bedford conveyancing solicitors. Could you shed some light as to whether the vendor of a flat can instigate the lease extension formalities for the buyer?
As long as the seller has owned the lease 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 need not have 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 before, or at the same time as 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.
Completion in due on the sale of our £150000 apartment in Bedford on Monday in a week. The freeholder has quoted £372 for Landlord’s certificate, insurance certificate and 3 years statements of service charge. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge such fees for a flat conveyance in Bedford?
Bedford conveyancing on leasehold maisonettes usually involves the buyer’s solicitor submitting questions for the landlord to address. Although the landlord is not legally bound to address such questions the majority will be willing to do so. They are entitled levy a reasonable administration fee for answering questions or supplying documentation. There is no set fee. The average costs for the paperwork that you are referring to is £350, in some situations it exceeds £800. The administration charge demanded by the landlord must be accompanied by a synopsis of entitlements and obligations in relation to administration charges, otherwise the charge is not strictly payable. Reality however dictates that you have little option but to pay whatever is demanded if you want to complete the sale of your home.
I bought a split level flat in Bedford, conveyancing formalities finalised half a dozen years ago. Can you let me have an estimated range of the fair premium for a lease extension? Comparable flats in Bedford with a long lease are worth £168,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £65 levied per year. The lease runs out on 21st October 2102
With only 77 years left to run the likely cost is going to be between £9,500 and £11,000 plus costs.
The figure that we have given is a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we cannot give you a more accurate figure in the absence of detailed due diligence. You should not use the figures in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There may be other issues that need to be taken into account and clearly you want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. You should not move forward based on this information without first getting professional advice.
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