Property
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Property Lawyers and Conveyancers
We advise on sales and purchases, residential, tenancy agreements, leases, conveyancing, changes of use, the granting of freehold interests, and remortgages. We have excellent connections with banks and mortgage brokers and can arrange finance. We operate Countrywide.
We are particularly good in disputes involving public houses.
Inspection
If we are advising on a property for a client we look at it with the client, which is, in our experience, a unique service.
We can draft Deeds of Gift and transfers of equity.
We advise on buy-to-let and property management.
We frequently advise on property matters for non-UK based clients.
More Information
Better than solicitors. For more information or a free legal opinion telephone 020-7381-8111 (24 hour service) or email law@rhplaw.co.uk.
We offer a fast and efficient service and are committed to a high level of client satisfaction.
Fixed fees from £950 + VAT
Do you have rent arrears?
We can help beat off, or at least delay your landlord
If you have fallen into arrears with your rent, the landlord serve a notice and then take you to Court to get you out.
There is often a way you can stay rent free, and even profitably.
If it is your home, the landlord is obliged to place the deposit for rent and dilapidations you have paid into a government scheme. Many egged on by dodgy estate agents do not do so.
This is your way out.
If you have received a notice, eviction or possession proceedings, contact the experts. We may be able to turn things around, and we will certainly fight your corner.
We can advise on and draft confidentiality and nondisclosure agreements.
Consult the experts. For more information or a free legal opinion telephone 020-7381-8111 (24 hour service) or email law@rhplaw.co.uk
Virtual Freehold
Estate agents and developers will offer you a virtual freehold. Take care.
There is no such thing as virtual freehold. When a block of flats is developed each flat’s ownership should be sold/split as a new long lease, The freehold reversion should either be:
a. retained by existing owner; or
b. transferred to a newly-created company (limited by guarantee) of which each flat’s leaseholder should be a member.
So be careful of falling for the sales patter ‘ virtual freehold’ when it is not even exist.
Call or e-mail the experts for a free opinion.
For more information or a free legal opinion telephone 020-7381-8111 (24 hour service) or email law@rhplaw.co.uk
Enfranchisement claims by commercial tenants seeking to buy the freehold
The Court of Appeal has ruled that a building designed as a house, but used entirely as an office could be considered a “house” for leasehold enfranchisement purposes.
The floodgates are open, for all sorts of buildings that nobody would perceive as being a house.
This ruling is clearly going to have a huge impact on a wide range of properties not only in London, but around the country.
Whether a building was a “house” for the purposes of section 2 (1) of the Leasehold Reform Act 1967 should be determined “at least in the main” by its physical appearance and character.
The judge said “One could, it seems to me, quite naturally describe a building built as a town house, which had subsequently been internally converted into offices, as a ‘house used as offices’: hence it would ‘reasonably [be] called’ a house, even though it was not used for residential purposes, and even if it was not permitted to be so used.
“If most people were asked whether a building could reasonably be called a house, I am not convinced it would occur to them to ask about the permitted use under any lease, or that they would be influenced if told what the permitted use was.”
He said: “The 1967 Act was originally intended to assist residential tenants occupying
their houses as their only or main residence to acquire their freeholds, but it can extend to buildings exclusively used for business purposes.”
Many commercial tenants will now seek to enfranchise. A lot of companies were waiting for this decision, particularly in central London, where so many properties built as houses are now in office use.
