I only have Sixty One years unexpired on my flat in Carmarthen. I now wish to get lease extension but my landlord is absent. What options are available to me?

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 enable the lease to be granted an extra 90 years by the magistrate. You will be obliged to demonstrate that you have done all that could be expected to track down the lessor. In some cases an enquiry agent may be helpful to try and locate and to produce a report to be accepted by the court as evidence that the freeholder can not be located. It is wise to seek advice from a conveyancer both on proving the landlord’s absence and the application to the County Court overseeing Carmarthen.

My wife and I purchased a leasehold house in Carmarthen. Conveyancing and Britannia mortgage are in place. A letter has just been received from someone claiming to own the reversionary interest in the property. It included a demand for arrears of ground rent dating back to 1991. The conveyancing solicitor in Carmarthen who previously acted has now retired.Do I pay?

First make enquiries of the Land Registry to be sure that the individual purporting to own the freehold is indeed the registered owner of the freehold reversion. It is not necessary to incur the fees of a Carmarthen conveyancing practitioner to do this as it can be done on-line for £3. You should note that in any event, even if this is the legitimate freeholder, under the Limitation Act 1980 no more than 6 years of rent can be collected.

Last month I purchased a leasehold house in Carmarthen. Am I liable to pay service charges relating to a period prior to completion of my purchase?

In a situation 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. A critical element 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 work for a long established estate agent office in Carmarthen where we have witnessed a number of flat sales derailed due to short leases. I have received contradictory information from local Carmarthen conveyancing firms. Could you clarify whether the vendor of a flat can commence the lease extension process for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

Provided that the seller has been the owner for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to kick-start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. The benefit of this is that the proposed purchaser 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 before, or simultaneously with completion of the disposal of the property.

Alternatively, it may be possible 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.

Can you provide any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Carmarthen with the intention of expediting the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Carmarthen can be avoided if you instruct lawyers the minute your agents start marketing the property and ask them to put together the leasehold documentation which will be required by the buyers conveyancers.
• In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s approval? In particular have you laid down wooden flooring? Most leases in Carmarthen state that internal structural alterations or installing wooden flooring calls for a licence issued by the Landlord acquiescing to such changes. Where you fail to have the consents in place do not contact the landlord without checking with your solicitor before hand.

I am the registered owner of a basement flat in Carmarthen, conveyancing was carried out half a dozen years ago. Can you please calculate a probable premium for a statutory lease extension? Equivalent flats in Carmarthen with a long lease are worth £180,000. The ground rent is £45 invoiced annually. The lease comes to an end on 21st October 2079

You have 55 years remaining on your lease we estimate the premium for your lease extension to be between £26,600 and £30,800 plus plus your own and the landlord's "reasonable" professional fees.

The suggested premium range above a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we cannot give you the actual costs in the absence of detailed due diligence. Do not use the figures in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There may be other concerns that need to be taken into account and clearly you should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Neither should you move forward placing reliance on this information before getting professional advice.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Carmarthen