Having checked my lease I have discovered that there are only Seventy years left on my flat in Keston. I now wish to extend my lease but my freeholder is absent. What should I do?

On the basis that you meet the appropriate requirements, 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 enable the lease to be lengthened by the Court. You will be obliged to prove that you or your lawyers have used your best endeavours to find the landlord. On the whole a specialist may be useful to try and locate and to produce an expert document which can be accepted by the court as proof that the freeholder can not be located. It is wise to seek advice from a conveyancer in relation to devolving into the landlord’s absence and the vesting order request to the County Court covering Keston.

Last month I purchased a leasehold house in Keston. Do I have any liability for service charges for periods before my ownership?

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. However, your landlord may still be able to take action to forfeit the lease. It is an essential part 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 long established estate agent office in Keston where we have witnessed a few flat sales derailed due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have received inconsistent advice from local Keston conveyancing firms. Could you clarify whether the vendor of a flat can start the lease extension process for the buyer?

Provided that the seller has been the owner 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 sit tight for 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed before, or at the same time as completion of the disposal of the property.

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 advice can you give us when it comes to choosing a Keston conveyancing firm to carry out our lease extension conveyancing?

When appointing a solicitor for lease extension works (regardless if they are a Keston conveyancing practice) it is most important that he or she should be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of conveyancing. We recommend that you speak with two or three firms including non Keston conveyancing practices before you instructing a firm. If the firm is ALEP accredited then so much the better. Some following of questions could be of use:

• How experienced is the practice with lease extension legislation?
• If the firm is not ALEP accredited then why not?

All being well we will complete the sale of our £ 375000 flat in Keston in 8 days. The managing agents has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Certificate of Compliance, insurance certificate and previous years service charge statements. Is the landlord entitled to charge such fees for a leasehold conveyance in Keston?

Keston conveyancing on leasehold flats usually necessitates the purchaser’s solicitor sending questions for the landlord to answer. Although the landlord is under no legal obligation to address such questions most will be content to do so. They are entitled charge a reasonable charge for answering enquiries or supplying documentation. There is no upper cap for such fees. The average fee for the information that you are referring to is over three hundred pounds, in some cases it is in excess of £800. The management information fee demanded by the landlord must be sent together with a synopsis of rights and obligations in respect of administration charges, otherwise the invoice is not strictly payable. In reality you have little choice but to pay whatever is demanded if you want to complete the sale of your home.

I have given up trying to purchase the freehold in Keston. Can this matter be resolved via the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal?

Most definitely. We can put you in touch with a Keston conveyancing firm who can help.

An example of a Lease Extension decision for a Keston premises is 1 Southlands Court Southlands Road in September 2013. The Leasehold Valuation Tribunal determined that the premium to be paid by the tenant on the grant of a new lease, in accordance with section 56 and Schedule 13 of the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 was £30,541 This case related to 1 flat. The unexpired term was 50.57 years.

Keston Leasehold Conveyancing - Sample of Queries Prior to Purchasing

What restrictions are contained in the Keston Lease? The answer will be useful as a) areas may cause problems in the block as the common areas may start to deteriorate if maintenance are not paid for b) if the tenants have a dispute with the running of the building you will wish to know about it