Finally the sale completed on my house in Alnwick last May but my buyer keeps e-mailing every few hours to say her lawyer is waiting to hear from mine. What are the post completion sale legalities now that I have sold?

Following your sale your conveyancer is obliged to deliver the transfer deeds and all additional paperwork to the buyer’s solicitors. If applicable, your lawyer must also send confirmation that the mortgage has been redeemed to the buyers solicitors. There is unlikely to be post completion tasks unique to conveyancing in Alnwick.

I have todaybeen informed that Stirling Law have closed. They carried out my conveyancing in Alnwick for a purchase of a leasehold flat 10 months ago. How can I check that my home is registered correctly in the name of the former proprietor?

The easiest method to check if the premises is registered to you, you can carry out a search of the land registry (£3.00). You can either do this yourself or ask a law firm to do this for you. If you are not registered you can seek help from one of a number of Alnwick conveyancing specialists.

I have been on the look out for a ground for flat up to £305k and found one round the corner in Alnwick I like with amenity areas and transport links in the vicinity, however it only has 51 remaining years left on the lease. There is not much else in Alnwick suitable, so just wondered if I would be making a mistake buying a lease with such few years left?

Should you require a mortgage the remaining unexpired lease term will be an issue. Reduce the offer by the anticipated lease extension will cost if it has not already been discounted. If the existing owner has owned the property for at least twenty four months you can request that they commence the lease extension formalities and then assign it to you. You can add 90 years to the existing lease and have £0 ground rent by law. You should speak to your conveyancing solicitor concerning this.

I am tempted by the attractive purchase price for a two maisonettes in Alnwick which have about forty five years unexpired on the leases. Do I need to be concerned?

There is no doubt about it. A leasehold apartment in Alnwick is a deteriorating asset as a result of the reducing lease term. The closer the lease gets to zero years unexpired, the more it reduces the salability of the property. The majority of purchasers and banks, leases with less than eighty years become less and less attractive. On a more positive note, leaseholders can extend their leases by serving a Section 42 Notice. One stipulation is that they must have owned the property for two years (unlike a Section 13 notice for purchasing the freehold, when leaseholders can participate from day one of ownership). When successful, they will have the right to an extension of 90 years to the current term and ground rent is effectively reduced to zero. Before moving forward with a purchase of a residence with a short lease term remaining you should talk to a solicitor specialising in lease extensions and leasehold enfranchisement. We are are happy to put you in touch with Alnwick conveyancing experts who will explain the options available to you during an initial telephone conversation free of charge. A more straightforward and quicker method of extending would be to contact your landlord directly and sound him out on the prospect of extending the lease. They may agree to a smaller lump sum and an increase in the ground rent, but to shorter extension terms in return. You need to ensure that any new terms represent good long-term value compared with the standard benefits of the Section 42 Notice and that onerous clauses are not inserted into any redrafting of the lease.

Alnwick Leasehold Conveyancing - Examples of Queries Prior to buying

It would be prudent to discover as much as you can regarding the company managing the building as they will either make your living at the property much simpler or problematic. As the proprietor of a leasehold property you will be at the mercy of the managing agents both financially and when it comes to practical matters like the cleanliness of the communal areas. Ask prospective neighbours if they are happy with them. On a final note, find out the dates that the service charges are due to the managing agents and specifically how they are spending the funds. Does the lease have onerous restrictions?

We are soon to buying a property in Alnwick. Could the property lawyer keep our transaction price confidential from sites such as Zoopla. How could this be achieved ?

The Land Registry by statute are bound to disclose price paid information on a register of the title for domestic properties nationwide including homes in Alnwick. The register of title is an open document, so the Land Registry would be breaching their statutory obligations excluded certain homes such as your property in Alnwick.

You can make a request of HMLR to hide the amount paid data yet the answer will be in the negative.