Buying a leasehold flat - things for conveyancer to check

leaseholdflat

Hi, I'm a long time lurker and this forum has helped me immensely while renting and hopefully now that we are buying as well. Please be gentle.

We are buying a leasehold flat that we used to rent many years ago. We have a mortgage offer in hand and are waiting for the draft contracts pack from the sellers' solicitors.

It's a 30 year old purpose built low rise block of flats, all private now, no lifts, ground+2 floors, about 30 flats in total (most of which are let as per the council landlord register), it's in an outer London council that requires 100% private rental licensing across the borough.
The lease has 96 years left on it, ground rent of £125/year, service charge of £65/month and is supposedly managed by the owners' association. From a look at the freehold title on from land registry, many of the flats have extended the lease by 125 years using the statutory process so hopefully that shouldn't be a problem.

I would like to put down in an email to my solicitor the things I'm concerned about (most of which is probably done as part of the conveyancing process I hope). Please could you have a look and tell me if there is anything I need to add, etc.

1. Onerous conditions in the lease.
2. Confirmation of monthly service charge, ground rent and any other ongoing charges.
2. Any major works notified.
3. Service charge arrears.
4. Any relevant information in relation to the landlord license issued by the council
5. Management arrangements for the block.
6. Any restrictions in relation to letting, sub-letting, short-lets
7. Any major hurdles to extending the lease in a few years.

Thanks in advance!

davidmcn

All things I would expect the solicitor to be checking and reporting on as standard, other than I'm not sure of the relevance of the "landlord licence" - isn't this personal to the current landlord (assuming there is one) rather than transferable? Are you buying it in order to let out?

bouicca21

I would want to obtain a copy of the lease and read it myself, then raise questions. There are obviously the big issues that you have already thought about, but there are also the minor irritations. Are pets allowed? Who is responsible for maintaining communal areas? Are floors to be carpeted? Etc.

leaseholdflat

Not at the moment, but would expect to when we have kids and move on in a few years. So it's important to us that there aren't any major hindrances to that. Hence the questions. I might be wrong, from at the current flat that we rent, the council inspected it before allowing the landlord's application for a license so I assume that the license is specific to the property as well.

To be fair, given that about 18 flats are let as per the landlord register, I would assume that there aren't any major issues in that regard.

I know what you are saying and I would expect the solicitor to be checking all this, but I've seen so many horror stories on the forum of them not doing a proper job that I might as well put it down in writing.

davidmcn wrote: »

All things I would expect the solicitor to be checking and reporting on as standard, other than I'm not sure of the relevance of the "landlord licence" - isn't this personal to the current landlord (assuming there is one) rather than transferable? Are you buying it in order to let out?

eddddy

It sounds like you might have details of the freeholder - it's worth finding out more about them - but that might be through google rather than your solicitor.

leaseholdflat wrote: »

From a look at the freehold title on from land registry, many of the flats have extended the lease by 125 years using the statutory process so hopefully that shouldn't be a problem.

Extended by 125 years, or extended to 125 years?

Either way, that won't be by the statutory process. (A Statutory Lease extension adds 90 years to the lease term).

But you shouldn't need to worry about that for a while.

Although, if the freeholder is informally offering lease extensions to 125 years at a good price and good terms, you could investigate. (But be very careful, some freeholders 'dupe' unsuspecting leasholders with very bad informal lease extension terms.)

leaseholdflat

Sorry, you're right, I got the numbers mixed up. The original lease is 125 years long, and extended by an additional 90 years for some of the flats using the provisions below..

NOTE: The lease was made under the provisions of section 56 or 93(4) of the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993;

eddddy wrote: »

It sounds like you might have details of the freeholder - it's worth finding out more about them - but that might be through google rather than your solicitor.

Extended by 125 years, or extended to 125 years?

Either way, that won't be by the statutory process. (A Statutory Lease extension adds 90 years to the lease term).

But you shouldn't need to worry about that for a while.

Although, if the freeholder is informally offering lease extensions to 125 years at a good price and good terms, you could investigate. (But be very careful, some freeholders 'dupe' unsuspecting leasholders with very bad informal lease extension terms.)

davidmcn

leaseholdflat wrote: »

Not at the moment, but would expect to when we have kids and move on in a few years.

It'll be whatever the council's policies at that time which will be relevant.

leaseholdflat

Of course. I just want to do what I can to confirm that the vendor/landlord isn't being forced to sell it because the property doesn't meet the conditions for a landlord license at present. It's one of 4 ground floor flats in the block and none of the other 3 are on the register.

The property isn't on the register yet, but as per the seller she's put in an application and the council take up to a year to process it. I don't know if that's true or not. Hopefully the solicitor will be able to suss that out.

davidmcn wrote: »

It'll be whatever the council's policies at that time which will be relevant.

Tom99

Get hold of the lease as soon as you can and read it word for word.
Check the lease plan against what you think you are buying, your solicitor will not do that for you, not only the demised area but the areas over which you expect to have rights, common parts, pathways etc.

leaseholdflat

Just got a copy of the lease, my solicitor said he'll send his report on the lease in a few days.

Already noted one snag, there appears to be a requirement for floors to be carpeted.

(4) To arrange for the floor of each room (except the kitchen) and also the hall and other parts of the demised premises to be fitted with suitable close fitted carpets and underlay and to renew the same when necessary any fixings for carpet to be secured with adhesive and neither nails pins nor screws to be fixed into floors or screeds.

It used to be carpeted when we rented the place 5-6 years ago but it's been replaced by lovely wooden flooring.

I'll bring it up with the solicitor but given that it's a ground floor flat, is it possible that the vendor could have got a "waiver" so to speak? I guess it's more likely that the vendor just did not know/care.

bouicca21 wrote: »

I would want to obtain a copy of the lease and read it myself, then raise questions. There are obviously the big issues that you have already thought about, but there are also the minor irritations. Are pets allowed? Who is responsible for maintaining communal areas? Are floors to be carpeted? Etc.

Tom99 wrote: »

Get hold of the lease as soon as you can and read it word for word.
Check the lease plan against what you think you are buying, your solicitor will not do that for you, not only the demised area but the areas over which you expect to have rights, common parts, pathways etc.