Flat Leases and Lenders’ Leasehold Requirements: A Practical Guide for Conveyancers

Description

As a Conveyancer, you will often encounter complexities in a leasehold transaction, whether due to poor drafting of the lease, unforeseen contingencies, or replies to enquiries.

The primary purpose of this course is to consider a range of issues raised by common lender instructions, especially contained in the UK Finance Lenders Handbook.

This presentation will look at how to manage key risks and focuses on how you can deal with them practically and effectively when they arise.

The course will include the following subjects:

Building Safety Act issues 

• Multiple factors that should be considered
• Landlord certificate and leaseholder deed of certificate — to what extent can a Conveyancer verify their contents?
• How far can a Conveyancer verify the extent to which leaseholder protections under the BSA apply, especially if a timely landlord certificate or leaseholder deed of certificate has not been given?
• Is non-qualifying status of a lease necessarily a deal-breaker?
• Limiting the extent of your retainer

Other Leasehold Concerns 

• Is a good leasehold title really a problem?
• When are buildings converted into flats acceptable?
• Is the Handbook adequate for dealing with breaches of leaseholder covenants?
• To extend the lease or not?
• Are the provisions of the head lease a problem?
• Restriction on disposition without consent
• Are the rights, covenants and arrangements adequate?
• Is a mutual enforcement covenant always needed?
• Does it really matter if the leases of flats in the block are not similar?
• Ground rents including any legislative updates
• When might service charges be regarded as too high?
• Is a deed of variation really necessary?
• Notice of mortgage, including RTM companies
• What are the issues around absent or insolvent landlords?
• What can we do if no complete copy of the lease is available?
• Possible issues that might be revealed by a “company search”