Fixed-fee leasehold conveyancing in St Mawes:

While any conveyancing solicitor can theoretically handle your leasehold conveyancing in St Mawes, your mortgage provider may unwilling to work with them if the firm are not on their list of approved solicitors for conveyancing

Top Five Questions relating to St Mawes leasehold conveyancing

I am in need of some leasehold conveyancing in St Mawes. Before I get started I want to be sure as to the number of years remaining on the lease.

If the lease is registered - and almost all are in St Mawes - then the leasehold title will always include the basic details of the lease, namely the date; the term; and the original parties. From a conveyancing perspective such details then enable any prospective buyer and lender to confirm that any lease they are looking at is the one relevant to that title.For any other purpose, such as confirming how long the term was granted for and calculating what is left, then the register should be sufficient on it's own.

I have recently realised that I have 68 years remaining on my flat in St Mawes. I now want to extend my lease but my landlord is missing. What options are available to me?

If you qualify, 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 enable the lease to be extended by the Court. You will be obliged to demonstrate that you or your lawyers have done all that could be expected to track down the freeholder. In some cases an enquiry agent would be useful to carry out a search and to produce an expert document to be accepted by the court as evidence that the landlord can not be located. It is advisable to get professional help from a solicitor in relation to investigating the landlord’s disappearance and the application to the County Court covering St Mawes.

I am hoping to complete next month on a garden flat in St Mawes. Conveyancing lawyers inform me that they are sending me a report on Monday. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?

The report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in St Mawes should include some of the following:

  • Details of the parties to the lease, for example these could be the leaseholder (you), head lessor, freeholder
  • Are pets allowed in the flat?
  • You must be told what counts as a Nuisance in the lease
  • Whether your lease has a provision for a reserve fund?
  • Changes to the flat (alterations and additions)
  • 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
  • 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 St Mawes please enquire of your lawyer in advance of your conveyancing in St Mawes

  • Estate agents have just been given the go-ahead to market my basement apartment in St Mawes.Conveyancing has not commenced but I have just received a half-yearly maintenance charge invoice – Do I pay up?

    It best that you 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 until 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.

    Can you provide any advice for leasehold conveyancing in St Mawes with the intention of speeding up the sale process?

    • Much of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in St Mawes can be avoided where you appoint lawyers as soon as you market your property and request that they start to collate the leasehold information which will be required by the buyers lawyers.
    • Many freeholders or managing agents in St Mawes levy fees for supplying management packs for a leasehold premises. You or your lawyers should discover the fee that they propose to charge. The management information can be applied for as soon as you have a buyer, thus reducing delays. The typical amount of time it takes to obtain the necessary information is three weeks. It is the most frequent reason for delay in leasehold conveyancing in St Mawes.
  • A minority of St Mawes leases require Landlord’s consent to the sale and approval of the buyers. If this is the case, you should notify your estate agents to make sure that the purchasers put in hand bank and professional references. Any bank reference should make it clear that the buyer is financially capable of paying the yearly 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 purchasers or their solicitors.
  • If you are supposed to have a share in the freehold, you should ensure that you hold the original share certificate. Obtaining a re-issued share certificate is often a time consuming process and frustrates many a St Mawes conveyancing deal. If a new share certificate is required, do contact the company officers or managing agents (if applicable) for this sooner rather than later.
  • You believe that you know the number of years remaining on your lease but it would be advisable verify this via your conveyancers. A purchaser's conveyancer will be unlikely to recommend their client to where the remaining number of years is below 80 years. In the circumstances it is essential at an as soon as possible that you consider whether the lease requires a lease extension. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your home on the market for sale.

  • St Mawes Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - Sample of Questions you should consider Prior to buying

      This question is useful as a) areas can cause problems for the block as the common areas may start to deteriorate where repairs remain unpaid b) if the leaseholders have a dispute with the running of the building you will wish to have all the details The best form of lease arrangement is a share of the freehold. In this scenario the tenants enjoy control and even though a managing agent is often employed where the building is larger than a house conversion, the managing agent is directed by the tenants. Please inform me if there are any major works in the near future that could add a premium to the maintenance charges?

    Other Topics

    Lease Extensions in St Mawes