Any conveyancers around please?

[Legallyperplexed]

I am trying to sell a retirement property as the owners have now died.

These properties are notoriously difficult to sell. We may, however, have found a buyer - a property investor who will in theory buy (at a significant undervalue). He is not a qualifying purchaser as he is below the age of 55 and I am presently seeking approval via the Trustees of the development as to whether this sale could continue as we would have then finalised the estate and the status quo would be maintained insofar as the development was concerned - there are currently about 18 apartments for sale!

That is one issue - if the Trustees do not agree to this sale then the whole thing will collapse. I accept that, and I am prepared to lose the solicitors' fees incurred thus far, with the agreement of the beneficiaries.

I do have another issue though.

The buyer is saying that they are yet to receive the management pack. My solicitor is saying that the Landlord’s solicitors will not release the management pack until I pay a £1,100 fee to assign the lease to the prospective purchaser. I declined to make this payment as, as I said earlier, if approval is not given, the sale fails.

I have told my solicitor this.

I have a copy of the original lease which states that “the Tenant (in this instance the estate) may assign this Lease to an Approved Assignee PROVIDED THAT the assignor Tenant must immediately upon the completion of the assignment pay to the Landlord: …..legal professional and internal administrative charges……reasonably incurred in dealing with the Assignment Notice……

There is another clause which states that the Tenant shall, (if requested by the Landlord) procure a solicitors’ undertaking to cover a reasonable estimate of the Administration costs.

My question is: Is it not the case that the completion of the Assignment is effectively completion of the sale for these purposes and that the undertaking that I would be happy to give should suffice? And, therefore, I should not be paying this amount at this stage?

I do not object to paying a reasonable amount for the management pack on behalf of the buyer, but to pay assignment fees seems somewhat pre-emptive. Even if assignee approval is granted then the sale could still fail if there should be something in the management pack which is unsatisfactory from my buyer’s point of view?

Indeed, would I be negligent in my handling of the estate if I agreed to those charges and paid them at this stage given there is no guarantee assignee approval will be granted?

Any advice would be appreciated, thank you!

IANAL but your potential purchaser is not actually a buyer as they haven't yet approved he can buy into the development due to not meeting the requirements (age). I think you would be negligent to the estate to pay this before they have approved the POTENTIAL sale, and the purchaser is being a bit too eager as they've not been approved yet.

That's a good point, thank you!

I feel as though I am going around in circles and in some sort of stalemate situation. I live in hope someone realises this soon.

IANAL either, but would suggest if the mgmt pack is required by buyer prior to trustee approval their solicitor should contact the mgmt company and pay for it directly (you can agree to reimbursement if sale completes) obviously without the assign fee because that's not theirs to authorise.

I would be surprised if the trustees permitted a waiver of the age restriction tbh because it is often tied into the planning permission grant and would also (guessing) open risk of backlash with others who are/have been selling in age- restricted market. Good luck!