A Leasehold property is defined as when you have either purchased the remaining shares in your property and now own 100%, or if you purchased the property outright.
Guinness does not normally need to be made aware that you beginning to sell your home. This is because there is no requirement for us to undertake any marketing of the property or for us to approve a buyer from a financial perspective.
The only approval Guinness will need to undertake is when your Lease has an age restriction mentioned in it. Please review your Lease to determine this so that you can make your Estate Agent aware of this when they market it on your behalf.
Guinness will require proof of ID to provide our approval to the buyer, if there is age criteria to be met.
You can appoint an Estate Agent to market your home straight away.
In some instances, where homes have been built in a rural area, you may have a Shared Ownership Mandatory Buy Back Lease, which means when you come to sell your home, Guinness must purchase the property to enable us to reoffer it on the original shared ownership terms.
When does Guinness become involved with the sale?
The first point that Guinness should be made aware of the property sale is once a buyer has been found and solicitors have been instructed by all parties and you are asked to obtain a management pack, this will be relevant where a Service Charge is paid to Guinness.
What is a Management Pack/LPE1?
This document can have a few different names but will always be required by a solicitor when the sale of a Leasehold property is taking place, as it will provide all information related to the Service Charge that the buyer’s solicitor will require.
Request a Leasehold Management pack
We charge a fee for our LPE1 document. View our charges. When making the request for the LPE1, either by yourself as the seller or the solicitor, please advise them to contact the following email address – resales@guinness.org.uk – so that we can provide our bank details and request the following documentation:
- A copy of the Lease
- A copy of the Title Register
- A copy of the Memorandum of Sale
- A copy of the Death Certificate (if applicable)
- A copy of the Grant of Probate (if applicable)
Please note that we only provide the LPE1 where Guinness charges a Service Charge directly to the seller.
Once the fees and documentation have been obtained, Guinness will have 15 working days from this date to issue the completed LPE1.
The LPE1 will include the following documents, where applicable:
- Service Charge Accounts for the past 3 years
- Building Insurance
- Fire Risk Assessment
- Asbestos Report
- EWS1
- Any known Major Works
- Alterations Approval
How will the sale progress?
From this point onwards, Guinness will liaise with your instructed solicitors regarding queries that are raised in respect of the LPE1 and any other associated queries to assist with the sale.
We will work with your solicitors to ensure completion occurs within a timely manner.
Please note that as Guinness are just a party to the sale and do not have any formal instructions, any completion dates and documentation that might require signing will come from your solicitors.
Understand the costs
The fee for the Management Pack (LPE1) is that Guinness will definitely require for the sale of a Leasehold property.
In addition to the management pack, some Leasehold properties where the Lease will state a fee that is to be charged to the Landlord (Guinness) in relation to the sale. This can vary but is usually 1% of the sales fee.
We would recommend reviewing the Lease and also liaising with your solicitors to confirm if there is a fee so that you are aware of this.
Contacting us
The best two methods of contacting Guinness regarding the sale of your Leasehold property is the following:
- resales@guinness.org.uk
- 0300 456 0522 (option 2)