Harry (my fiance) and I may need to let out our Longlands basement flat for a while due to a career opportunity. We used a Longlands conveyancing practice in 2002 but they have since shut and we did not think at the time get any advice as to whether the lease allows us to sublet. How do we find out?

Notwithstanding that your last Longlands conveyancing lawyer is not around you can review your lease to check if you are permitted to let out the premises. The accepted inference is that if the lease is silent, subletting is permitted. There may be a precondition that you need to obtain consent from your landlord or other appropriate person prior to subletting. This means you not allowed to sublet without first obtaining consent. Such consent is not allowed to be unreasonably turned down. If your lease does not allow you to sublet you should ask your landlord if they are willing to waive this restriction.

I only have Seventy years remaining on my flat in Longlands. I now want to get lease extension but my freeholder 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 submit an application to the County Court for for permission to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will enable the lease to be extended by the Court. You will be obliged to demonstrate that you have done all that could be expected to track down the landlord. For most situations a specialist would be helpful to try and locate and prepare an expert document which can be used as evidence that the landlord is indeed missing. It is advisable to get professional help from a property lawyer both on investigating the landlord’s disappearance and the application to the County Court overseeing Longlands.

I am employed by a long established estate agent office in Longlands where we see a number of leasehold sales put at risk due to short leases. I have been given inconsistent advice from local Longlands conveyancing firms. Please can you shed some light as to whether the vendor of a flat can instigate the lease extension formalities for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

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. This means that the proposed purchaser can avoid having to sit tight for 2 years for a lease extension. 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.

Do you have any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Longlands with the purpose of expediting the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Longlands can be reduced where you instruct lawyers as soon as your agents start marketing the property and request that they start to collate the leasehold documentation needed by the purchasers’ lawyers.
• Many landlords or Management Companies in Longlands charge for providing management packs for a leasehold property. You or your lawyers should discover the actual amount of the charges. The management information sought as soon as you have a buyer, thus reducing delays. The typical amount of time it takes to obtain the necessary information is three weeks. It is the most frequent cause of delay in leasehold conveyancing in Longlands.
• 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 Longlands state that internal structural alterations or addition of wooden flooring require a licence from the Landlord consenting to such changes. If you dont have the paperwork to hand you should not contact the landlord without contacting your lawyer in advance.
• If you have had conflict with your freeholder or managing agents it is very important that these are settled before the property is put on the market. The buyers and their solicitors will be nervous about purchasing a flat where there is an ongoing dispute. You will have to accept that you will have to pay any arrears of service charge or resolve 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 buyers, but it is better to reveal the dispute as historic rather than unresolved.
• You believe that you know the number of years remaining on your lease but it would be wise to verify this by asking your lawyers. A purchaser's conveyancer will be unlikely to recommend their client to where the lease term is less than 80 years. In the circumstances it is essential at an as soon as possible that you identify whether the lease requires a lease extension. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your premises on the market for sale.

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

if there is a missing freeholder or if there is disagreement about the premium for a lease extension, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 it is possible to make an application to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) to decide the price payable.

An example of a Lease Extension matter before the tribunal for a Longlands premises is 103a Footscray Road in January 2014. The tribunal determines that the premium payable for the extended lease should be £34,500 according to the expert witness valuation calculation This case affected 1 flat.

What makes a Longlands lease unmortgageable?

There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Longlands. All leases is drafted differently and drafting errors can sometimes mean that certain clauses are erroneous. The following missing provisions could result in a defective lease:

• A provision to repair to or maintain elements of the premises
• A duty to insure the building
• A provision for the recovery of money spent for the benefit of another party.
• Service charge per centages that don't add up correctly leaving a shortfall

You may have a problem when selling your property if you have a defective lease primarily because it impacts on the ability to obtain a mortgage on the property. Santander, Bank of Scotland, and Britannia all have express requirements when it comes to what is expected in a lease. If a mortgage lender believes that the lease is problematic they may refuse to grant the mortgage, forcing the purchaser to withdraw.

Leasehold Conveyancing in Longlands - A selection of Questions you should ask Prior to buying

Is the freehold owned collectively by the tenants? Please tell me if there are any major works in the near future that will likely add a premium to the maintenance costs? Most Longlands leasehold properties will have a service charge for maintenance of the building invoiced on behalf of the freeholder. Should you buy the apartment you will have to pay this amount, normally quarterly throughout the year. This may be anything from a couple of hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for large purpose-built buildings. There will also be a rentcharge to be met yearly, normally this is not a large figure, say approximately £50-£100 but you need to enquire as on occasion it could be surprisingly expensive.