I am in need of some leasehold conveyancing in Grahame Park. Before I get started I want to be sure as to the remaining lease term.

If the lease is recorded at the land registry - and almost all are in Grahame Park - then the leasehold title will always include the short particulars of the lease, namely the date; the term; and the original parties. From a conveyancing perspective such details then enable any prospective buyer and lender to confirm that any lease they are looking at is the one relevant to that title.For any other purpose, such as confirming how long the term was granted for and calculating what is left, then the register should be sufficient on it's own.

I only have Seventy years unexpired on my lease in Grahame Park. I now want to extend my lease but my landlord is absent. What options are available to me?

On the basis that you qualify, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the County Court for for permission 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 have used your best endeavours to locate the lessor. In some cases a specialist should be helpful to try and locate and to produce a report to be accepted by the court as proof that the landlord is indeed missing. It is advisable to get professional help from a conveyancer both on investigating the landlord’s disappearance and the vesting order request to the County Court overseeing Grahame Park.

My wife and I purchased a leasehold flat in Grahame Park. Conveyancing and Nationwide Building Society mortgage organised. I have received a letter from someone saying they have taken over the freehold. Attached was a demand for arrears of ground rent dating back to 1994. The conveyancing solicitor in Grahame Park who acted for me is not around.What should I do?

The first thing you should do is contact HMLR to make sure that this person is in fact the registered owner of the freehold reversion. You do not need to instruct a Grahame Park conveyancing solicitor to do this as it can be done on-line for £3. Rest assured that in any event, even if this is the legitimate landlord, under the Limitation Act 1980 the limitation period for recovery of ground rent is six years.

Do you have any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Grahame Park with the aim of saving time on the sale process?

• Much of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Grahame Park can be reduced where you instruct lawyers the minute you market your property and ask them to put together the leasehold documentation which will be required by the buyers representatives.
• The majority landlords or Management Companies in Grahame Park charge for supplying management packs for a leasehold property. You or your lawyers should enquire as to the actual amount of the charges. The management pack sought on or before finding a buyer, thus accelerating the process. The average time it takes to receive management information is three weeks. It is the most common reason for frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Grahame Park.
• If you have carried out any alterations to the property would they have required Landlord’s approval? Have you, for example laid down wooden flooring? Most leases in Grahame Park state that internal structural alterations or installing wooden flooring require a licence issued by the Landlord approving such changes. If you fail to have the paperwork to hand do not contact the landlord without checking with your conveyancer first.
• A minority of Grahame Park leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this applies to your lease, it would be prudent to place the estate agents on notice to make sure that the purchasers obtain bank and professional references. The bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are able to meet the annual 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 solicitors.
• If you have the benefit of shareholding in the Management Company, you should ensure that you are holding the original share document. Obtaining a duplicate share certificate can be a time consuming process and delays many a Grahame Park conveyancing transaction. Where a duplicate share is necessary, do contact the company officers or managing agents (where relevant) for this at the earliest opportunity.

Completion in due on our sale of a £ 475000 apartment in Grahame Park on Thursday in a week. The managing agents has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Landlord’s certificate, building insurance schedule and previous years statements of service charge. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge an administration fee for a leasehold conveyance in Grahame Park?

Grahame Park conveyancing on leasehold apartments typically involves fees being invoiced by management companies :

• Completing pre-contract enquiries
• Where consent is required before sale in Grahame Park
• 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 conveyancer will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for Grahame Park leasehold property is £350. For Grahame Park 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.

I have had difficulty in trying to purchase the freehold in Grahame Park. Can the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal adjudicate on premiums?

You certainly can. We are happy to put you in touch with a Grahame Park conveyancing firm who can help.

An example of a Freehold Enfranchisement decision for a Grahame Park flat is 1 & 1A Sunningfields Crescent in September 2013. The Tribunals calculation of the amount to be paid into court in respect of the value of the freehold interest is £11,997 in respect of Flat 1 and £15,781 in respect of Flat 1A for a total of £27,778. This case affected 2 flats. The unexpired term was 71.5 years.

Grahame Park Leasehold Conveyancing - Examples of Queries Prior to buying

Many Grahame Park leasehold apartments will be liable to pay a service charge for the upkeep of the block levied by the management company. Should you acquire the apartment you will have to pay this contribution, usually in instalments throughout the year. This can be anything from two or three hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for buildings with lifts and large common areas. There will also be a ground rent to be met annual, normally this is not a significant amount, say around £50-£100 but you need to check it because occasionally it could be many hundreds of pounds. The prefered form of lease structure is if the freehold title is in the ownership of the leaseholders. In this arrangement the lessees benefit from control and even though a managing agent is often retained where it is bigger than a house conversion, the managing agent acts for the leaseholders themselves.