What Do We Do-lease Extension Now???

lilyann1

Alot of you will know my dilemma,big house or smaller house.
After thinking long and hard the big house is what we want but it is so stressful I don't think i can take anymore.

The vendor backed out of 2 properties and found a L/H flat back at the beginning of OCt.

It needs a lease extension and he has been waiting for the management company to put it in writing, that they will go 50/50 on the cost.We are told it has to also been done before the property changes ownership,so just wondering how long this will all take as I hear horrer stories.

We have buyers threatening to pull out if we don't all move by Xmas and we are totally fed up as they are that we have all been waiting now since March.
We just don't think we'll ever move and i don't know how much longer we can wait,even though we love this house.

I dread having to put mine back on the market and start again so really want to keep our buyers.

goldbyron

Your situation is so stressful and I really symphathise. Personally I would provide the vendor with a date to exchange...and stick to it. I would say the end of November and that is being generous. If your buyer pulls out and your vendor is still messing around, forget the house. Your vendors seem to be a real pain. Sorry can't be of more help - it is a dilemma - but it will resolve itself eventually and a decision will be clear to you. Continued good luck!

lilyann1

Had a very long conversation with our vendor last night and to cut the story short,he definitely wants to sell to us and pulled out of the other 2 properties for very serious reasons.
He is half packed like we are and is phoning the managing agents every day over this lease extension.
He seems to think that once he gets it in writing,then he can go ahead on the searches and exchange and complete asap,whilst the management company sort out the extension? Is this right?
We just have to try and keep our buyer sweet now to hold on a bit more.
If they pull out then we have to forget it and start again.

Richard_Webster

As a Conveyancing Solicitor ( http://www.rwco.co.uk) I know from experience that lease extensions can take a time. Once your seller's seller has the "deal" in writing from the landlord, the landlord will then get his solicitor to draw up the deed.

Before the solicitor does that, he is quite likely to want the seller's seller to agree to pay his costs which could mean the seller's seller giving his solicitor £500 or so so that that solicitor can give an undertaking to pay them. Expect that bit of it to take a good week or so and for the seller's seller to object to the cost!.

Then the landlord's solciitor gets started, but lease extensions are non-standard documents and so he will fit it in when he can. Then both the seller's seller's solicitor and your seller's solicitor will have to look at the draft deed to make sure it is OK. So you can see that it can easily take 4-6 weeks for the people concerned to sort out the lease extension.

It depends a bit on how long the lease is. Some leases are so short they are unmortgageable. Others are getting towards that state but still are long enough to attract a mortgage but a buyer is not surprisingly advised to be careful because if buys such a lease he may get caught with paying a lot for an extension when HE sells.

If it is in the second category you might be able to get your seller to wait until after completion of his purchase to sort out the extension of the lease. He will probably say that he doesn't want to take the risk of the landlord changing his mind and asking for more money! (Landlords can do this because they argue that they have a legal duty to give an extension to someone who has owned a lease for 2 years but not for someone who has just bought.)

Sorry this is bad news. It is one of the problems with conveyancing chains. It always seems that the place you fall in love with has a seller who is buying a difficult property or can't make up his mind about what he wants. There's often another house down the road which is kind of OK and you could buy it. It is not nearly as nice as the one you want, but is empty and the seller isn't buying anything! People oftne have this kind of choice to make and it isn't easy.

Worried

Sorry to hijack, but is relevant, does anyone know how long it should take to draw up the engrossment deed for a lease extension? My solicitor and my sellers' solicitor have amended and approved the deed and sent it back and we are awaiting the engrossment. It's been a week and a half. Just wondering how long I should give it before I chase? Given that we are now on a tight time scale to get this completed all parties involved should be aware of this.

lilyann1

So it seems to me our vendor will make sure he has the lease extension done before he completes, is this right as he doesn't want to risk the landlord changing his mind?
This will take time as we believed, whereas he is saying it will all be able to go ahead while he is waiting for the extension???
I believe you R Webster rather than my vendor.

Richard_Webster

lilyann,

From your point of view if your seller says that he can go ahead and exchange and complete and get the lease extension sorted later, then you push him to stick to that, but be aware of the stuff I've mentioned.

You might want to get him to check the feasibility of what he is telling with his solicitor. If his solciitor says that he can do it afterwards, who are you to argue? Of course, if his solicitor is switched on he will warn him about the possibility of the landlord changing his mind.