Retention of lease fees for sale?

[Beaumatrix]

I am currently selling my lease flat in Cheshire. I had no idea that the solicitors retain a percentage of fees if the budget hasn't been produced! So for year end July 2017 they want 4 months fees and year end July 2018 they want 4 months equivalent too.

Argh.
Does anyone have any experience if this?? Seems bloody ridiculous to ask for so much :(

What budget do you mean?

What fees are they asking for?

Sorry your post doesn't make much sense

Sorry typed in a hurry.... basically the purchaser solicitors are asking for the equivalent of 5 months lease fees to be paid to them and 'held' until all the accounts are available- which could be 2-3 years. I don't understand it all. It's a bloody nightmare selling A leasehold property and there is so little information around about this!

Are you sure you've understood OP?

Only ask as the normal thing is to hold a few months of lease fees/service charge until buyer can be sure vendor has settled all these accounts upon sale. Usually gets refunded as soon as sale goes through and all is well.

Yes I have got it right sadly.
Despite paying my actual lease/ground rent until the date of completion they want a retention in case the leasehold company decide they want to charge me for something that would be a shared cost amongst the properties. So for year end July 2017 -3 months lease fees equivalent and then July 2018 year end another 2 Montvs lease fee equivalent. They have 18 months apparently to produce the year end budget so I may well be waiting a very long time for the money back. I don't understand why I can't just be invoiced directly if there was a charge e.g. the bloody notice board needed replacing
It just seems with leasehold properties there is do little information around

Beaumatrix this is normal practice unfortunately.

It is the buyer's solicitor who will be requesting the retention so that if there are any service charges or other expenses which occur during your period of ownership, they can request reimbursement out of the retention from your solicitor.

Up until the final accounts have been produced, the payments you make are only estimates. Since you are in the process of selling, it is unknown at the moment how long your period of ownership is likely to be since you have yet to complete.

Solicitors have to have the retention, simply because they do not know whether or not you might have left the country by the time an invoice is produced 18 months or 2 years in the future. The solicitor would not be able to undertake to pay these invoices to the buyer's solicitor without a guarantee that there is money in the pot from the seller (i.e. you) to pay them.