At BHW Conveyancing, we are experts in leasehold transactions. Our friendly team of conveyancing solicitors has extensive experience dealing specifically with leasehold properties, ensuring you receive tailored advice and seamless support.
Understanding the terms and conditions of your lease is crucial. We will conduct a thorough review of your lease agreement, explaining all the clauses and obligations to ensure you have complete clarity before proceeding.
You’ll be allocated an exclusive team of property experts dedicated to your transaction. Each of our conveyancing teams is headed by an experienced property lawyer, which means that important leasehold details won’t be missed and any queries are answered efficiently.
Waheeda Alli Partner
What does leasehold mean?
When you buy a leasehold property, you are technically buying the rights to live in the property from the freeholder for a fixed period of time. This is why you may have a lease for 100 years for instance.
Typically, leases last around 99-125 years long. After which, you would need to extend your lease in order to continue living in the property. When you live in a leasehold property, you may have to pay a ground rent to the freeholder which is an annual charge.
Instruct conveyancing solicitors
The first step is to choose a property solicitor as soon as you can. This way, you can start the conveyancing process as efficiently as possible, reducing potential hold-ups.
Complete questionnaires & handover documents
If you are selling a leasehold property, your solicitor will ask you for some information that they will need to put a draft contract pack together for the buyer. They will ask you things like what will be included in the sale, such as garden sheds, fireplaces or cabinets for instance. They will also require information regarding the lease and any management company arrangements. To help you to gather the required information, you’ll be asked to complete the following forms:
The TA6 form will ask you about any boundaries, disputes with neighbours or alterations.
The TA10 form will ask you about any fittings and fixtures within the property.
The TA7 form is only for leasehold properties and provides information about maintenance responsibilities, costs and rights to buy the freehold.
Title documents including the register and plan, conveyances, transfers and the lease if the property is leasehold.
The TA13 form will ask about completion details and whether your house is free from mortgages and liability claims.
Property survey
If your buying a leasehold property, you can still decide to instruct a surveyor to carry out a survey of your property and the building to inspect its construction and condition. The surveyor will usually require access to the property or building to complete the survey.
Property searches
Depending on the buyer’s circumstances, they may require or want property searches to be done. The buyer’s conveyancing solicitors will order the property searches from the relevant local authorities. This takes a few weeks and they will come back with important information about the land and surrounding areas such as whether it is affected by radon or contamination, environmental impacts, mines, flood risks or sewage networks. The search results are compiled from data held about the area, and no physical access to the property will be required to complete them.
Title report & enquiries
The buyer’s property solicitors will review all the information sent to them in the contract pack. They will raise any follow-up questions, known as ‘enquiries’, with your solicitor to confirm and clarify any details like obtaining any safety certificates, building regulations certificates or planning permissions, if applicable. Some enquiries will be answered by the seller’s conveyancing solicitor, however, in order to answer others as accurately as possible they will forward them on to the owner for their input. This process may continue until the buyer and their solicitor are satisfied that they have been provided with all of the relevant information about the property to proceed with the transaction.
Paying the mortgage
The seller’s conveyancing solicitors will ask them for a redemption statement from their mortgage lender if they have a mortgage on the property. They will normally do this twice, once at the beginning of the transaction to ensure there are sufficient funds coming from the sale to settle the mortgage balance on completion, and once more just prior to completion to ensure they have the most up to date figure considering any interest applied or monthly payments made. The seller’s solicitor will be required to send the required amount to the lender to redeem the mortgage on receipt of the purchase funds from the buyer’s solicitor.
Contracts are signed & returned
Providing you are happy that you wish to go through with the transaction, you can proceed to read and sign the contracts. These will be signed by both the seller and the buyer and sent back to their respective solicitors.
Exchange & Completion
Exchange and completion are the very last stages of the property process. These can happen simultaneously on the same day, or they can happen on different days, depending on the circumstances of the buyer and the seller. Exchange of contracts is where both solicitors confirm that all the legal documents are in order and have been signed by both parties, whereas completion is where the funds are transferred and the keys can be handed over. Once your solicitor exchanges contracts with the other, all parties are tied into completing the transaction. This allows everyone to finalise plans for moving out of or in to the property on the agreed completion day.
Your conveyancing transaction in the safest hands – and the reviews to back it up
Overall, I had such a positive experience using BHW as a first time buyer. My property purchase was quite complex and had many delays/ complications. However, Rebecca who dealt with me from the very beginning was fantastic. A very good conveyancer and a credit to the company. She explained everything thoroughly. Always responded to my phone calls and emails. I would say all the team at BHW are highly professional and helpful also including Kim who helped with exchange and completion right at the end. I will use BHW in future sales or purchases. Highly recommend.
Amy Notchell
BHW Residential were fantastic for the sale of my property. Waheeda Alli and her team – Adnan, Elle, Foram and Mariya- were brilliant. They were friendly, approachable, efficient, kept me informed throughout and worked hard to bring my sale to completion in the quick timescale I required. I have no hesitation in recommending them most highly.
Kafi Walker
A massive thanks you to the BHW team in the successful sale of our house, especially to Stephanie Harris, who throughout the whole process has been professional, extremely helpful, dependable and always kept us in the loop!
Lambros Athanatos
The team at BHW especially Lauren & Kimberly were fantastic. The communication was excellent throughout and I felt they did absolutely everything possible to get us across the line as quickly as possible whilst also protecting our interests. I would highly recommend BHW to anyone buying or selling a property.
Chris Penney
Could not recommend BHW enough! Excellent communication and updates throughout the sale and purchase. Would definitely use this solicitors again! Thank you for your fantastic service and for making our move so much less stressful!
Chloe Portch
What to expect from BHW Conveyancing
If you choose to move with us, you can expect the highest quality standards and a specialised conveyancing team who are dedicated to your leasehold property purchase journey.
At BHW Conveyancing, we have an in-depth understanding of local leasehold property regulations and nuances, ensuring compliance with local rules and regulations. It is important that when buying a leasehold property, you’re aware of things like ground rent, management fees, enfranchisement options and the length of your lease.
You’ll be allocated an exclusive team of property experts dedicated to your transaction. Each of our conveyancing teams are headed by an experienced conveyancing lawyer, which means that important leasehold details won’t be missed and any queries answered efficiently.
You won’t be passed from pillar to post as your team will be on hand to assist you. We find that this approach ensures we maintain a high quality of service and our clients are always content with our communication as they are kept in the loop at every stage of the transaction.
BHW Conveyancing is part of BHW Solicitors Limited, which is one of the leading property law firms in Leicestershire and the wider East Midlands. BHW is a top ranked real estate firm in the East Midlands by the Legal 500, as well as being ranked in the Chambers & Partners legal industry guide.
We hold the Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS) accreditation and have been awarded the Lexcel quality standard by the Law Society. This recognises our impeccable standards of competence, risk management and client care practices.
If your leasehold property has an 80-year lease or less, it could be a problem. Often, mortgage lenders will not lend to those who are buying a short lease. This is because as the lease term starts to depreciate, it becomes more expensive and difficult to renew the lease. This can therefore make a leasehold property much harder to sell.
Is it hard to sell a leasehold property?
A leasehold property is not usually hard to sell unless the lease has 80 years or less left. Mortgage lenders tend to steer clear from lending to those with a short lease which can make it hard to sell. It’s a good idea to check the lease left on a property before buying it and make sure that it doesn’t drop below 80 years whilst you own it.
Is it a good idea to buy leasehold?
Buying a leasehold property can be a good idea, however, there are certain things you need to be aware of such as the length of the lease, the ground rent and any maintenance costs. Leasehold properties tend to be cheaper for these reasons. Providing you are clear about the extra costs and risks involved, there are no issues with buying a leasehold property. Make sure you speak with a conveyancing solicitor before buying a leasehold home.
Kim Marshall
Licensed Conveyancer
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