Buying a flat (leasehold)
The prospect of buying property can be daunting. There are various stages to the process of buying a leasehold property and these can be put very simply as follows:-
1. Completing a title investigation and approval of contracts and raising of enquiries.
2. Obtaining satisfactory results as to the property searches and replies to enquiries.
3. Obtaining up to date service charge, insurance and ground rent information.
4. Obtaining satisfactory Mortgage Offer, where clients require it.
5. Any related transaction being ready.
When purchasing a leasehold property the time scale of the transaction may be longer purely due to the fact that usually there are further parties involved in the form of the freeholder and/or Management Agents. As part of our enquiries we check that all ground rent and service charges are paid up to date amongst other general leasehold matters. For this reason, the Sellers lawyers usually have to refer to the freeholder or Managing Agent for their replies to our questions. This may be time consuming and beyond our control
Once the above stages have been completed all parties will sign contract papers and proceed towards an exchange of contracts with an agreed completion date. Completion (moving) then takes place and post-completion formalities are dealt with including dealing with stamp duty and registration at HM Land Registry. When buying a leasehold property we will normally be required to serve notice on the landlord/managing agents of your ownership in order that they know who to write to following completion.
