There are only Sixty One years remaining on my lease in Waterbeach. I now wish to extend my lease but my freeholder is absent. What are my options?

On the basis that you qualify, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the County Court for an order to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will mean that your lease can be extended by the magistrate. However, you will be required to prove that you or your lawyers have used your best endeavours to locate the landlord. On the whole an enquiry agent should be useful to carry out a search and to produce an expert document which can be accepted by the court as proof that the freeholder is indeed missing. It is wise to seek advice from a solicitor both on investigating the landlord’s absence and the application to the County Court covering Waterbeach.

I am looking at a couple of maisonettes in Waterbeach which have approximately fifty years remaining on the leases. Do I need to be concerned?

There are plenty of short leases in Waterbeach. The lease is a legal document that entitles you to use the property for a period of time. As a lease gets shorter the marketability of the lease reduces and it becomes more expensive to acquire a lease extension. This is why it is generally wise to increase the term of the lease. More often than not it is difficult to sell a property with a short lease as mortgage lenders less inclined to grant a loan on properties of this type. Lease enfranchisement can be a protracted process. We advise that you get professional help from a conveyancer and surveyor with experience in this field

I am a negotiator for a long established estate agent office in Waterbeach where we have experienced a few leasehold sales put at risk as a result of short leases. I have received conflicting advice from local Waterbeach conveyancing solicitors. Could you clarify whether the seller of a flat can initiate 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 kick-start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. The benefit of this is that the buyer can avoid having 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.

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.

Can you offer any advice when it comes to appointing a Waterbeach conveyancing practice to carry out our lease extension conveyancing?

If you are instructing a property lawyer for lease extension works (regardless if they are a Waterbeach conveyancing practice) it is most important that they be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of conveyancing. We recommend that you talk with several firms including non Waterbeach conveyancing practices prior to instructing a firm. Where the conveyancing practice is ALEP accredited then so much the better. Some following of questions could be of use:

• If the firm is not ALEP accredited then what is the reason?

What are the frequently found problems that you encounter in leases for Waterbeach properties?

Leasehold conveyancing in Waterbeach is not unique. All leases is drafted differently and legal mistakes in the legal wording can sometimes mean that certain sections are wrong. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:

• Repairing obligations to or maintain parts of the property
• 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 will likely cause issues when trying to sell a property primarily because it impacts on the ability to obtain a mortgage on the property. Lloyds TSB Bank, Norwich and Peterborough Building Society, and TSB 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 problematic they may refuse to provide security, forcing the buyer to pull out.

Waterbeach Leasehold Conveyancing - Examples of Queries before buying

The answer will be helpful as a) areas could result in problems for the block as the communal areas may begin to deteriorate where repairs remain unpaid b) if the leaseholders have a dispute with the managing agents you will wish to have full disclosure What is the length of the lease? Most Waterbeach leasehold flats will have a service bill for the upkeep of the block invoiced on behalf of the landlord. Should you purchase the property you will have to pay this amount, normally quarterly during the year. This could vary from several hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for blocks with lifts and large communal grounds. There will also be a rentcharge to be met annual, ordinarily this is not a large figure, say around £25-£75 but you should to enquire as occasionally it could be prohibitively expensive.

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Lease Extensions in Waterbeach