Having checked my lease I have discovered that there are only Seventy years remaining on my flat in Horfield. I am keen to extend my lease but my freeholder is absent. What options are available to me?

If you qualify, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can submit an application to the County Court for an order to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will mean that your lease can be granted an extra 90 years by the magistrate. However, you will be required to prove that you or your lawyers have made all reasonable attempts to find the lessor. In some cases an enquiry agent would be useful to try and locate and prepare a report which can be used as proof that the freeholder is indeed missing. It is advisable to get professional help from a conveyancer in relation to devolving into the landlord’s disappearance and the application to the County Court covering Horfield.

My wife and I purchased a leasehold flat in Horfield. Conveyancing and Britannia mortgage are in place. I have received a letter from someone saying they have taken over the freehold. Attached was a ground rent demand for rent dating back to 1992. The conveyancing solicitor in Horfield who previously acted has now retired.Any advice?

First make enquiries of HMLR to be sure that this person is in fact the registered owner of the freehold reversion. It is not necessary to incur the fees of a Horfield conveyancing practitioner to do this as you can do this on the Land Registry website for less than a fiver. Rest assured that regardless, even if this is the rightful freeholder, under the Limitation Act 1980 the limitation period for recovery of ground rent is six years.

I am looking at a couple of flats in Horfield both have approximately 50 years remaining on the lease term. should I be concerned?

There is no doubt about it. A leasehold flat in Horfield is a deteriorating asset as a result of the shortening lease. The nearer the lease gets to its expiry date, the more it reduces the salability of the property. For most buyers and lenders, leases with less than eighty years become less and less attractive. On a more upbeat note, leaseholders can extend their leases by serving a Section 42 Notice. One stipulation is that they must have owned the property for two years (unlike a Section 13 notice for purchasing the freehold, when leaseholders can participate from day one of ownership). When successful, they will have the right to an extension of 90 years to the current term and ground rent is effectively reduced to zero. Before moving forward with a purchase of premises with a short lease term remaining you should talk to a solicitor specialising in lease extensions and leasehold enfranchisement. We are are happy to put you in touch with Horfield conveyancing experts who will explain the options available to you during an initial telephone conversation free of charge. More often than not it is possible to negotiate informally with the freeholder to extend the lease They may agree to a smaller lump sum and an increase in the ground rent, but to shorter extension terms in return. You need to ensure that any new terms represent good long-term value compared with the standard benefits of the Section 42 Notice and that onerous clauses are not inserted into any redrafting of the lease.

Do you have any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Horfield with the intention of speeding up the sale process?

• Much of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Horfield can be bypassed if you appoint lawyers as soon as you market your property and request that they start to collate the leasehold documentation needed by the purchasers’ conveyancers.
• The majority landlords or managing agents in Horfield charge for supplying management packs for a leasehold homes. You or your lawyers should discover the fee that they propose to charge. The management information can be applied for on or before finding a buyer, thus accelerating the process. The typical amount of time it takes to receive management information is three weeks. It is the most frequent cause of delay in leasehold conveyancing in Horfield.

In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s permission? In particular have you installed wooden flooring? Most leases in Horfield state that internal structural alterations or installing wooden flooring calls for a licence from the Landlord acquiescing to such changes. Should you dont have the consents to hand you should not communicate with the landlord without checking with your conveyancer in advance.

If there is a history of conflict with your landlord or managing agents it is essential that these are settled before the property is marketed. The purchasers and their solicitors will be concerned about purchasing a property where a dispute is ongoing. You will have to accept that you will have to discharge any arrears of service charge or resolve the dispute prior to the buyers completing the purchase. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled ahead of the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You will still have to reveal details of the dispute to the buyers, but it is clearly preferable to present the dispute as historic rather than unsettled.

If you are supposed to have a share in the freehold, you should make sure that you have the original share certificate. Arranging a duplicate share certificate can be a lengthy formality and delays many a Horfield conveyancing deal. If a new share is needed, you should approach the company director and secretary or managing agents (if relevant) for this sooner rather than later.

We expect to complete our sale of a £375000 flat in Horfield next week. The managing agents has quoted £312 for Landlord’s certificate, insurance certificate and previous years statements of service charge. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge an administration fee for a leasehold conveyance in Horfield?

Horfield conveyancing on leasehold apartments ordinarily results in administration charges levied by managing agents :

• Addressing conveyancing due diligence questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Horfield
• Copies of the building insurance and schedule
• Deeds of covenant upon sale
• Registering of the assignment of the change of lessee after a sale

Your solicitor will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for Horfield leasehold property is £350. For Horfield conveyancing transactions it is customary for the seller to pay for these costs. The landlord or their agents are under no legal obligation to answer such questions most will be willing to do so - albeit often at exorbitant prices where the fees bear little relation to the work involved. Unfortunately there is no law that requires fixed charges for administrative tasks. Neither is there any legal time frame by which they are obliged to provide answers.

I acquired a basement flat in Horfield, conveyancing having been completed in 2003. How much will my lease extension cost? Similar flats in Horfield with a long lease are worth £210,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £45 yearly. The lease comes to an end on 21st October 2078

You have 53 years left to run the likely cost is going to span between £34,200 and £39,600 plus plus your own and the landlord's "reasonable" professional fees.

The suggested premium range that we have given is a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we cannot give you the actual costs in the absence of comprehensive investigations. Do not use this information in tribunal or court proceedings. There are no doubt additional concerns that need to be considered and clearly you want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Neither should you move forward placing reliance on this information before getting professional advice.

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Lease Extensions in Horfield