I am tempted by the attractive purchase price for a couple of maisonettes in Finsbury which have approximately fifty years remaining on the lease term. Should I regard a short lease as a deal breaker?

A lease is a right to use the property for a prescribed time frame. As a lease gets shorter the value of the lease decreases and it becomes more costly to extend the lease. For this reason it is advisable to extend the lease term. It is often difficulties arise selling premises with a short lease as mortgage companies less inclined to grant a loan on such properties. Lease enfranchisement can be a difficult process. We recommend you get professional assistance from a conveyancer and surveyor with experience in this field

Last month I purchased a leasehold property in Finsbury. Am I liable to pay service charges relating to a period prior to completion of my purchase?

In a situation where the service charge has already been demanded from the previous lessee and they have not paid you would not usually be personally liable for the arrears. Strange as it may seem, your landlord may still be able to take action to forfeit the lease. A critical element of leasehold conveyancing for your conveyancer to ensure to have an up to date clear service charge receipt before completion of your purchase. If you have a mortgage this is likely to be a requirement of your lender.

If you purchase part way through an accounting year you may be liable for charges not yet demanded even if they relate to a period prior to your purchase. In such circumstances your conveyancer would normally arrange for the seller to set aside some money to cover their part of the period (usually called a service charge retention).

I am a negotiator for a busy estate agency in Finsbury where we have witnessed a number of flat sales jeopardised due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given contradictory information from local Finsbury conveyancing solicitors. Please can you clarify whether the vendor of a flat can start the lease extension formalities for the buyer?

As long as the seller has owned the lease for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to commence the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. The benefit of this is that the buyer can avoid having to wait 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed prior to, or simultaneously with completion of the sale.

An alternative approach is to extend the lease informally by agreement with the landlord 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.

What are your top tips when it comes to appointing a Finsbury conveyancing practice to carry out our lease extension conveyancing?

If you are instructing a property lawyer for lease extension works (regardless if they are a Finsbury conveyancing firm) it is essential that he or she should be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of work. We recommend that you speak with two or three firms including non Finsbury conveyancing practices prior to instructing a firm. If the firm is ALEP accredited then so much the better. Some following of questions could be useful:

• What volume of lease extensions has the firm conducted in Finsbury in the last 12 months?
• What are the legal fees for lease extension conveyancing?

After months of correspondence we cannot agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in Finsbury. Can we issue an application to the Residential Property Tribunal Service?

if there is a absentee landlord or if there is disagreement about what the lease extension should cost, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the LVT to calculate the premium.

An example of a Lease Extension matter before the tribunal for a Finsbury residence is Flat 89 Trinity Court Grays Inn Road in February 2013. the Tribunal found that the premium to be paid by the tenant on the grant of a new lease, in accordance with section 56 and Schedule 13 to the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 should be £36,229. This case was in relation to 1 flat. The unexpired lease term was 66.8 years.

Are there common defects that you encounter in leases for Finsbury properties?

There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Finsbury. Most leases is drafted differently and legal mistakes in the legal wording can sometimes mean that certain clauses are missing. The following missing provisions could result in a defective lease:

• A provision to repair to or maintain elements of the building
• A duty to insure the building
• Clauses dealing with recovering service charges for expenditure on the building or common parts.
• Maintenance charge proportions which don’t add up to the correct percentage

You will have difficulties when selling your property if you have a defective lease primarily because it impacts on the ability to obtain a mortgage on the property. Accord Mortgages Ltd, Leeds Building Society, and Clydesdale all have very detailed requirements when it comes to what is expected in a lease. If a mortgage lender believes that the lease does not cover certain provisions they may refuse to grant the mortgage, forcing the purchaser to withdraw.

I inherited a 2 bed flat in Finsbury, conveyancing was carried out in 2004. Can you please calculate a probable premium for a statutory lease extension? Equivalent properties in Finsbury with a long lease are worth £245,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £45 per annum. The lease ends on 21st October 2106

With 80 years left to run we estimate the premium for your lease extension to span between £11,400 and £13,200 plus professional fees.

The figure above a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we cannot give you the actual costs in the absence of detailed due diligence. You should not use this information in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There may be additional issues that need to be considered and clearly you should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. You should not take any other action based on this information before getting professional advice.