Why would you look to extend your lease?

As the length of the remaining term decreases so does the value of the lease. Further if you plan to have a mortgage on the property or you are planning to sell the property, you or the proposed buyer may have difficulties obtaining lending on the property unless there is at least 55 years left on the term i.e. 30 years plus the mortgage term. Some lenders will ask that there is at least 70 years on the left on the lease term.

You must have owned the the flat for 2 years to be able to applying if successful you will be granted a further 90 years plus the remainder of the term of the current lease.

It is best to increase you lease term early on as if the lease has 80 years or more then you will not have to pay a sum of money to the landlord when you seek the extension, this is called the marriage value.

You will need to serve a notice on the landlord, this notice must include certain information and we would suggest that you instruct an expert to assist you with this.

If you are planning to sell the property and have you have concerns that the lease term will put off potential buyers it is possible that provided you have served a claim notice that you can transfer the right to seek the extension to the new buyer. this avoids the buyer having to wait 2 years before they can seek the extension.

At Fidler and Pepper we have a specialist leasehold team that can help with such enquiries. If you would like us to provide you with a quote for a lease extension or if you require any further information on this matter please do not hesitate to make contact with me, climb@fidler.co.uk or 01623 448302.

Christie Limb

Partner

The government has recently approved the plans to build a high speed rail link between Birmingham and London.

At a later date this will be expanded to Leeds and Manchester.

There are obvious commercial benefits and we have seen commuter towns develop and flourish all around the rail links to London. I am sure the same will happen here.

The flipside is that some people will lose their much loved properties under Compulsory purchase orders or be affected by noise from the train itself.

There are statutory schemes in place to compensate for the loss of your property and a “home loss compensation payment” of 10% of the open market value upto £47,000 on top of the open market value of the property.
There are also schemes that compensate for the noise pollution.

However money won’t find you a new house of your dreams or create new school and social networks.

At least we have certainty now in terms of where the line will run and who will be affected by it and to some extent people can look forward again and plan their futures.

Any questions about any of the above issues then please email me at msslade@fidler.co.uk

I have blogged about this previously and focused on the difference between the misery peddled by the Press and the reality at the coal face.

I have two more titbits to share:

A national search provider told me in a meeting that his figures are up by 27% compared with this time last year. Again this is people purchasing and paying cold hard cash for their searches.

The second thing is that we have a meeting booked this week to discuss how we plan to grow our operation in terms of staff.

We haven’t had meetings like that since 2007.

Other competitors I talk to are looking to recruit as well

The increase of transactions going through this year has been steady and serviceable but the growth has been month on month and conveyancing businesses need to look at their

pipeline and maintain the critical point of delivering and achieving quality service.

Happy house hunting

Matt

For conveyancing quote please click here

In most business sales, the price agreed for the transaction will state £x plus stock at valuation. Other assets such as property, goodwill and plant and machinery will have an agreed value attached to them, but stock levels will vary and therefore generally they are valued on or around the date of completion. Sometimes the stock price is agreed in advance but the parties need to be careful of this approach as at the time of completion the value previously agreed might not correctly reflect the value of the stock on completion.

Stock in

a retail business will mean the value of the items to be sold on. In the service sector stock will mean work in progress. In the manufacturing sector it becomes more complicated as it incorporates the raw materials, the items half way through the manufacturing process (work in progress) and also the completed product.

The best way to resolve the stock valuation is for an expert to value the stock on completion and for the parties to accept the expert’s decision as binding. The expert will charge for his involvement. Other ways of resolving stock would be for the parties to meet up on the day of completion and agree a value but they might not be experts in the field and as such may value incorrectly.

The stock valuation needs to be undertaken as soon as possible after completion.

If you are buying or selling a business and need a solicitor to assist with the transaction please contact climb@fidler.co.uk.

Christie Limb

Recent statistics would suggest that older couples and individuals are under-utilising their larger properties and it is estimated that there are 25 million unused bedrooms in England with 37% of homes are under occupied.

It would seem therefore that older people are holding on to properties that are greater than their physical needs. It has been suggested that older people be offered stamp duty free downward move coupled with penalty council taxes for under occupation to encourage larger properties to be put on the market. Whether such a scheme is adopted remains to be seen however.

Whether this suggestion is realistic or not, it does touch upon the issue that quite often older people find themselves in a home which they have raised a family in and are quite comfortable living in. Why should they want to move?

Quite often it is because they have to release equity from the property to fund their older age and cope with the every increasing cost of living. One way to do this is through an equity release scheme. This is a scheme whereby a lender loans money to an individual, which is secured against the property. They charge interest on this amount but it generally only becomes payable upon the death of the borrower. We are certainly seeing more of these schemes coming through the Fidler & Pepper doors.

If you are considering such a scheme or have been approached and want to speak to a solicitor regarding specific aspects of the scheme or are considering selling your property and want advice in relation to this then please drop me a line to discuss this further on either wjames@fidler.co.uk or 01623451111.  

Over the last year or so I have noticed a steady rise with clients purchasing properties at Auction and there certainly seems to be some bargains out there.

It occurs to me however that not everyone will know much about this method of buying property so I have set out a brief guide for the uninitiated.

At auction you place a bid on a property you wish to buy. If this is accepted by the auctioneer then you enter into a legal agreement to buy the property. Typically at the end of the auction you will exchange contracts and set a date whereby you are due to complete. This is usually 21 days from the day of the auction. In addition you will be liable for a deposit of 10% of the purchase price and will have to pay this on the day.

The important thing to remember is that once you are successful you are committed to the purchase and therefore you should consider the following:

1.      Finances – consider whether you can (1) afford the deposit (2) balance of purchase price (3) any legal fees. Are you buying with a mortgage? If so it is a good idea to have this in place before the date of the auction.

2.      Have you visited the property? Have you carried out a survey? Under the terms of the auction contact you will purchase the property on a sold as seen basis and there will be no come back if you subsequently discover something that you should have investigated beforehand.

3.      Have you obtained legal advice? As a solicitor it will not surprise you to discover that I would recommend taking legal advice but this is perhaps the most important aspect to consider. Just because the property is at auction does not guarantee that there are no legal problems with it.

4.      If you are considering buying at auction contact the auction house and express your interest in the property. They will then be able to send you a copy of the legal pack which you can then pass to your solicitor.  

If you are considering purchasing a property at auction or have any questions relating to buying property at auction please give me a call on 01623 451111 or email me on wjames@fidler.co.uk

It used to be quite rare that we would be asked this question – people may have lost faith or confidence in their conveyancer and want to change to us part way through the transaction. Unless something serious has gone wrong the normal advice would have been to stick it out with the old conveyancer.