I wish to sublet my leasehold flat in Crouch End. Conveyancing solicitor who did the purchase is retired - so can't ask him. Is permission from the freeholder required?

Your lease governs relations between the landlord and you the leaseholder; specifically, it will indicate if subletting is not allowed, or permitted but only subject to certain conditions. The accepted inference is that if the lease contains no expres ban or restriction, subletting is allowed. The majority of leases in Crouch End do not contain subletting altogether – such a clause would adversely affect the market value the flat. Instead, there is usually simply a requirement that the owner notifies the freeholder, possibly supplying a copy of the sublease.

I only have Sixty One years unexpired on my flat in Crouch End. I now want to extend my lease but my freeholder is missing. 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 enable the lease to be granted an extra 90 years by the magistrate. You will be obliged to demonstrate that you or your lawyers have done all that could be expected to track down the landlord. In some cases an enquiry agent may be helpful to try and locate and to produce a report to be used as evidence that the freeholder is indeed missing. It is advisable to get professional help from a property lawyer in relation to proving the landlord’s absence and the application to the County Court covering Crouch End.

I am tempted by the attractive purchase price for a couple of flats in Crouch End which have about forty five years remaining on the leases. Do I need to be concerned?

There are plenty of short leases in Crouch End. The lease is a legal document that entitles you to use the property for a prescribed time frame. As the lease gets shorter the value of the lease deteriorate and results in it becoming more costly to acquire a lease extension. This is why it is advisable to increase the term of the lease. It is often difficult to sell a property with a short lease as mortgage lenders less inclined to grant a loan on properties of this type. Lease enfranchisement can be a difficult process. We advise that you seek professional help from a conveyancer and surveyor with experience in this area

Do you have any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Crouch End with the purpose of speeding up the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Crouch End can be bypassed if you get in touch lawyers the minute you market your property and request that they start to collate the leasehold documentation which will be required by the purchasers’ conveyancers.
• In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s consent? Have you, for example installed wooden flooring? Most leases in Crouch End state that internal structural changes or installing wooden flooring necessitate a licence from the Landlord acquiescing to such works. Should you dont have the consents in place do not communicate with the landlord without contacting your solicitor before hand.
• Some Crouch End leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this applies to your lease, it would be prudent to notify your estate agents to make sure that the purchasers obtain bank and professional references. Any bank reference should make it clear that the buyer is able to meet the yearly service charge and the actual amount of the service charge should be quoted in the bank’s letter. You will therefore need to provide your estate agents with the actual amount of the service charge so that they can pass this information on to the buyers or their lawyers.
• If you have had conflict with your landlord or managing agents it is very important that these are settled prior to the flat being put on the market. The buyers and their solicitors will be warry about purchasing a flat where there is an ongoing dispute. You may have to bite the bullet and pay 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 prior to the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You are still duty bound to disclose particulars of the dispute to the purchasers, but it is clearly preferable to reveal the dispute as historic as opposed to unresolved.
• You believe that you know the number of years left on your lease but you should verify this via your conveyancers. A purchaser's conveyancer will be unlikely to recommend their client to where the remaining number of years is less than 75 years. It is therefore essential at an early stage that you identify whether the lease for your property needs extending. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your property on the market for sale.

All being well we will complete the sale of our £ 375000 garden flat in Crouch End on Wednesday in a week. The freeholder has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Landlord’s certificate, building insurance schedule and 3 years statements of service charge. Is the landlord entitled to charge exorbitant fees for a leasehold conveyance in Crouch End?

For the majority of leasehold sales in Crouch End conveyancing will involve, questions about the management of a building inevitably needing to be answered directly by the freeholder or its agent, this includes :

• Addressing conveyancing due diligence questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Crouch End
• Supplying insurance information
• 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 Crouch End leasehold property is £350. For Crouch End 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 required to provide the information.

After months of correspondence we are unable to agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in Crouch End. Can we issue an application to the Residential Property Tribunal Service?

in cases where there is a missing landlord or if there is dispute about the premium for a lease extension, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) to decide the amount due.

An example of a Lease Extension case for a Crouch End flat is Flat 2A 19 Shepherds Hill in June 2014. The tribunal concluded in accordance with section 48 and schedule 13 of the Leasehold Reform,Housing and Urban Development Act (the 1993 Act) that the premium payable in respect of the grant of a new lease for the Flat be £24,303 (twenty four thousand three hundred and three pounds) This case related to 1 flat. The unexpired term was 67.85 years.

Crouch End Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - A selection of Queries before buying

Best to be warned if redecorating or some other major work is coming up that will be shared amongst the leaseholders and may well materially impact the level of the maintenance fees or require a one off invoice. The best form of lease structure is where the freehold interest is in the ownership of the leaseholders. In this arrangement the lessees have being in charge if their destiny and even though a managing agent is frequently retained where the building is larger than a house conversion, the managing agent is directed by the tenants. Who manages the building?