I was joined once more by BRIAN HUGHES, Consultant Solicitor of Shenfield based, RAINER HUGHES to look at issues involving extending a lease.
If you are living in a Leasehold Property, the longer you stay there, the less time remains on your lease.
Inevitably this makes the property less attractive to prospective buyers.
And on top of this mortgage lenders will be wary of lending against any property having less than double the usual 25-year term attaching to repayment mortgages.
Indeed it has become general practice for any of the major lenders to require at least 60 years left on a term before agreeing to any new 25-year capital repayment mortgage.
If you missed what Brian had to say on this subject, or simply want to refresh your memory, you can listen again here: –
Keeping to matters legal, in the second hour of today’s show we heard how the simple act of eating a bagel could land you in serious trouble.
Yes it’s all true!
This is because the seeds often found on bagels, are derived from opium poppies so they can sometimes contain traces of morphine.
The traces are not enough to make you high but can be enough to appear on a sensitive drug test.
This is exactly what happened to Elizabeth Eden from Maryland who ate a poppy seed bagel for breakfast on the same day that she gave birth to her daughter.
As she went into labour the doctor told her she had tested positive for opiates and had been reported to state officials.
The result meant that her newborn daughter had to stay in hospital alone to be monitored, and Elizabeth was assigned a case worker.
Mercifully it was quickly determined that she was not taking drugs BUT in addition to poppy seed bagels, there is a range of other ways you can test positive for drugs without having actually taken them.
These include taking cold and flu medicines which sometimes contain ingredients that could cause a false-positive for amphetamines and even drinking tonic water, which contains a small amount of quinine – the drug used to treat Malaria.
Now this could be a real issue if you happen to be travelling to somewhere like Dubai where the list of banned substances includes many items available off-the-shelf in the UK, like cold and flu remedies.
A Swiss national visiting Dubai was jailed for possession of 3 poppy seeds on his clothing after he ate a bread roll at Heathrow!
Customs authorities in the Emirates are using highly sensitive new equipment and if they find any amount – no matter how minute – it will be enough to attract a mandatory 4 year prison sentence.
You have been warned – and I don’t think even Brian could get you out .
See you again tomorrow,
Scott
