Having had my offer accepted I require leasehold conveyancing in Maryland. Before I set the wheels in motion I want to be sure as to the number of years remaining on the lease.

Assuming the lease is recorded at the land registry - and almost all are in Maryland - 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.

There are only Seventy years unexpired on my lease in Maryland. I now want to get lease extension but my landlord is absent. 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 extended by the magistrate. However, you will be required to demonstrate that you or your lawyers have used your best endeavours to track down the landlord. For most situations an enquiry agent may be helpful to try and locate and to produce an expert document which can be used as proof that the landlord is indeed missing. It is wise to seek advice from a conveyancer both on proving the landlord’s absence and the vesting order request to the County Court overseeing Maryland.

I work for a reputable estate agency in Maryland where we see a number of flat sales derailed due to short leases. I have been given conflicting advice from local Maryland conveyancing solicitors. Can you shed some light as to whether the owner of a flat can instigate the lease extension process 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 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 wait 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed before, or simultaneously with completion of the sale.

Alternatively, it may be possible 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 purchaser.

Do you have any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Maryland from the point of view of expediting the sale process?

• Much of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Maryland can be bypassed where you get in touch lawyers as soon as your agents start marketing the property and request that they start to put together the leasehold information which will be required by the purchasers’ lawyers.
• Many freeholders or Management Companies in Maryland charge for providing management packs for a leasehold homes. You or your lawyers should enquire as to the actual amount of the charges. The management pack can be applied for on or before finding a buyer, thus accelerating the process. The typical amount of time it takes to receive management information is three weeks. It is the most usual cause of frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Maryland.

If you have carried out any alterations to the premises would they have required Landlord’s approval? In particular have you installed wooden flooring? Maryland leases often stipulate that internal structural changes or installing wooden flooring necessitate a licence issued by the Landlord approving such changes. Where you dont have the paperwork to hand do not communicate with the landlord without checking with your solicitor first.

Some Maryland 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 financial (bank) and professional references. The bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are financially capable of paying 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 service charge figures so that they can pass this information on to the purchasers or their solicitors.

If you hold a share in a the freehold, you should ensure that you hold the original share document. Organising a replacement share certificate can be a time consuming formality and delays many a Maryland conveyancing transaction. If a new share certificate is necessary, do contact the company director and secretary or managing agents (where relevant) for this sooner rather than later.

Completion in due on the sale of our £275000 garden flat in Maryland next week. The management company has quoted £384 for Landlord’s certificate, building insurance schedule and previous years service charge statements. Is the landlord entitled to charge an administration fee for a flat conveyance in Maryland?

For most leasehold sales in Maryland conveyancing will involve, queries regarding the management of a building inevitably needing to be answered directly by the freeholder or its agent, this includes :

• Completing pre-contract questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Maryland
• 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 solicitor will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for Maryland leasehold property is £350. For Maryland 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 obliged to supply answers.

After years of dialogue we simply can't agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in Maryland. Can we issue an application to the Residential Property Tribunal Service?

Where there is a missing freeholder or if there is disagreement about what the lease extension should cost, under the relevant statutes you can apply to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal to decide the premium.

An example of a Lease Extension matter before the tribunal for a Maryland property is 151A Ham Park Road in May 2010. The matter came before the Tribunal by way of a vesting order made on 12 June 2009 Deputy District Judge Coonan in Bow County Court. The tribunal decided that the sum payable for the m to be paid for the lease extension was £21,445 This case related to 1 flat.

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Lease Extensions in Maryland