I have recently realised that I have Seventy years unexpired on my lease in Littleport. I now want to get lease extension but my landlord is can not be found. What should I do?

If you meet the appropriate requirements, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the County Court for an order to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will mean that your lease can be extended by the Court. You will be obliged to prove that you or your lawyers have made all reasonable attempts to find the landlord. In some cases a specialist should be helpful to carry out a search and to produce an expert document to be used as proof that the landlord can not be located. It is wise to seek advice from a conveyancer in relation to proving the landlord’s absence and the vesting order request to the County Court overseeing Littleport.

I am hoping to exchange soon on a leasehold property in Littleport. Conveyancing lawyers assured me that they will have a report out to me within the next couple of days. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?

Your report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in Littleport should include some of the following:

• You should be sent a copy of the lease

Will you be prohibited or prevented from having pets in the property?

You should be told what constitutes a Nuisance in the lease

You should have a good understanding of the insurance provisions

Repair and maintenance of the flat

Responsibility for repairing the window frames

What the implications are if you breach a clause of your lease? For details of the information to be contained in your report on your leasehold property in Littleport please enquire of your conveyancer in advance of your conveyancing in Littleport

I am employed by a busy estate agency in Littleport where we see a few flat sales put at risk as a result of leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given inconsistent advice from local Littleport conveyancing solicitors. Please can you clarify whether the owner of a flat can initiate the lease extension formalities for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

Provided that the seller has owned the lease for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to kick-start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. The benefit of this is that the proposed purchaser need not have to wait 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed prior to, or at the same time as completion of the disposal of the property.

Alternatively, it may be possible to agree the lease extension with the freeholder either before or after the sale. If you are informally negotiating there are no rules and so you cannot insist on the landlord agreeing to grant an extension or transferring the benefit of an agreement to the buyer.

Do you have any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Littleport from the point of view of saving time on the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Littleport can be bypassed if you appoint lawyers the minute you market your property and ask them to collate the leasehold information needed by the purchasers’ lawyers.
• If you have carried out any alterations to the premises would they have required Landlord’s consent? In particular have you installed wooden flooring? Littleport leases often stipulate that internal structural alterations or addition of wooden flooring necessitate a licence issued by the Landlord acquiescing to such works. If you fail to have the consents in place you should not contact the landlord without contacting your conveyancer before hand.

If there is a history of any disputes with your freeholder or managing agents it is essential that these are settled prior to the flat being marketed. The buyers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a property where a dispute is ongoing. You may need to swallow your pride and discharge any arrears of service charge or settle 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 are still duty bound to disclose details of the dispute to the buyers, but it is clearly preferable to present the dispute as historic as opposed to unsettled.

If you hold a share in a the Management Company, you should ensure that you hold the original share certificate. Obtaining a replacement share certificate can be a time consuming process and frustrates many a Littleport home move. Where a new share certificate is needed, do contact the company officers or managing agents (where applicable) for this sooner rather than later.

You believe that you know the number of years left on your lease but it would be wise to double-check by asking your conveyancers. A purchaser's conveyancer will not be happy to advise their client to to exchange contracts if the remaining number of years is below 75 years. It is therefore important at an as soon as possible that you consider whether the lease for your property needs extending. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your property on the market for sale.

If all goes to plan we aim to complete our sale of a £325000 maisonette in Littleport next week. The management company has quoted £372 for Landlord’s certificate, building insurance schedule and 3 years service charge statements. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge exorbitant fees for a flat conveyance in Littleport?

Littleport conveyancing on leasehold apartments typically involves administration charges raised by freeholders :

• Answering pre-exchange questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Littleport
• Supplying insurance information
• Deeds of covenant upon sale
• Registering of the assignment of the change of lessee after a sale

Your lawyer will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for Littleport leasehold property is £350. For Littleport 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 the information.

I own a split level flat in Littleport, conveyancing formalities finalised in 2009. Can you give me give me an indication of the likely cost of a lease extension? Comparable flats in Littleport with a long lease are worth £222,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £55 invoiced annually. The lease terminates on 21st October 2082

You have 57 years unexpired the likely cost is going to be between £26,600 and £30,800 as well as plus your own and the landlord's "reasonable" professional fees.

The figure above a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we cannot give you a more accurate figure in the absence of detailed investigations. Do not use the figures in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There are no doubt additional concerns that need to be considered and clearly you should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. You should not move forward based on this information before seeking the advice of a professional.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Littleport