Fixed-fee leasehold conveyancing in Balham:

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Leasehold conveyancing in Balham 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 Balham and across next step up in loc. The lawyers we recommend have been approved by your lender so use our search tool to check.

Top Five Questions relating to Balham leasehold conveyancing

Harry (my fiance) and I may need to let out our Balham 1st floor flat for a while due to a career opportunity. We used a Balham conveyancing firm in 2004 but they have since shut and we did not have the foresight to get any guidance as to whether the lease permits subletting. How do we find out?

Even though your previous Balham conveyancing solicitor is not available you can review your lease to see if it allows you to sublet the apartment. The accepted inference is that if the lease is non-specific, subletting is allowed. Quite often there is a prerequisite that you are obliged to seek consent via your landlord or other appropriate person before subletting. This means you not allowed to sublet without prior consent. Such consent should not be unreasonably withheld. If the lease prohibits you from letting out the property you will need to ask your landlord for their consent.

There are only 62 years remaining on my flat in Balham. I need to extend my lease but my freeholder is missing. What are my options?

On the basis that you meet the appropriate requirements, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the County Court for for permission to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will mean that your lease can be granted an extra 90 years by the magistrate. However, you will be required to prove that you or your lawyers have done all that could be expected to track down the landlord. In some cases a specialist may be helpful to conduct investigations and to produce an expert document which can be accepted by the court as evidence that the landlord is indeed missing. It is advisable to get professional help from a conveyancer both on devolving into the landlord’s disappearance and the application to the County Court overseeing Balham.

I have just started marketing my basement apartment in Balham.Conveyancing is yet to be initiated but I have just received a half-yearly service charge invoice – what should I do?

Your conveyancing lawyer is likely to suggest that you should discharge 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. This will smooth the conveyancing process.

I am employed by a reputable estate agency in Balham where we have witnessed a number of flat sales put at risk due to short leases. I have received inconsistent advice from local Balham conveyancing solicitors. Please can you shed some light as to whether the seller of a flat can commence the lease extension formalities 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. The benefit of this is that the buyer need not have to wait 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.

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.

Do you have any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Balham from the point of view of expediting the sale process?

  • A significant proportion of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Balham can be avoided where you get in touch lawyers the minute you market your property and request that they start to collate the leasehold information which will be required by the purchasers’ conveyancers.
  • Many freeholders or Management Companies in Balham charge for providing management packs for a leasehold property. You or your lawyers should find out the actual amount of the charges. The management pack can be applied for as soon as you have a buyer, thus reducing delays. The average time it takes to obtain the necessary information is three weeks. It is the most frequent reason for frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Balham.
  • A minority of Balham leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this is the case, it would be prudent to notify your estate agents 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 hold a share in a the Management Company, you should make sure that you hold the original share document. Obtaining a re-issued share certificate is often a time consuming process and slows down many a Balham home move. If a new share certificate is needed, do contact the company officers or managing agents (if relevant) for this at the earliest opportunity.
  • You may think that you are aware of the number of years remaining on your lease but you should double-check by asking your conveyancers. A buyer’s conveyancer will not be happy to advise their client to where the lease term is below 80 years. It is therefore important at an early stage that you consider whether the lease term for your property needs extending. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your premises on the market for sale.

    • Following years of dialogue we are unable to agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in Balham. Can we issue an application to the Residential Property Tribunal Service?

    Most definitely. We can put you in touch with a Balham conveyancing firm who can help.

    An example of a Lease Extension decision for a Balham residence is First Floor Flat 152a Ramsden Road in June 2009. The net result of the tribunals calculation produced a premium payable of £23,975. This case affected 1 flat. The remaining number of years on the lease was 56.67 years.

    Other Topics

    Lease Extensions in Balham