Having had my offer accepted I require leasehold conveyancing in South Ruislip. Before I get started I would like to find out the number of years remaining on the lease.

If the lease is recorded at the land registry - and almost all are in South Ruislip - 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.

My partner and I may need to rent out our South Ruislip garden flat for a while due to a new job. We used a South Ruislip conveyancing practice in 2002 but they have since shut and we did not have the foresight to seek any advice as to whether the lease allows us to sublet. How do we find out?

The lease governs the relationship between the freeholder and you the flat owner; in particular, it will indicate if subletting is prohibited, or permitted but only subject to certain caveats. The accepted inference is that if the lease contains no specific ban or restriction, subletting is permitted. The majority of leases in South Ruislip do not prevent subletting altogether – such a provision would adversely affect the market value the flat. In most cases there is simply a requirement that the owner notifies the freeholder, possibly sending a copy of the sublease.

There are only 68 years unexpired on my lease in South Ruislip. I now wish to get lease extension but my landlord is absent. What options are available to me?

If you qualify, 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 mean that your lease can be granted an extra 90 years by the Court. However, you will be required to demonstrate that you have made all reasonable attempts to track down the lessor. In some cases a specialist should be useful to conduct investigations and to produce an expert document which can be used as evidence that the freeholder can not be located. It is advisable to get professional help from a solicitor both on investigating the landlord’s absence and the application to the County Court covering South Ruislip.

Do you have any advice for leasehold conveyancing in South Ruislip from the point of view of expediting the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in South Ruislip can be reduced if you instruct lawyers as soon as your agents start marketing the property and request that they start to put together the leasehold documentation which will be required by the buyers representatives.
• If you have carried out any alterations to the residence would they have required Landlord’s approval? In particular have you installed wooden flooring? Most leases in South Ruislip state that internal structural changes or laying down wooden flooring calls for a licence from the Landlord acquiescing to such works. If you dont have the approvals in place do not communicate with the landlord without contacting your solicitor in advance.

Some South Ruislip leases require Landlord’s consent to the sale and approval of the buyers. 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. Any bank reference should make it clear that the buyer is financially capable of paying the yearly 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 lawyers.

If you have the benefit of shareholding in the freehold, you should ensure that you hold the original share document. Obtaining a re-issued share certificate is often a lengthy process and frustrates many a South Ruislip home move. Where a duplicate share certificate is necessary, you should approach the company officers or managing agents (if applicable) for this sooner rather than later.

You may think that you are aware of the number of years remaining on your lease but it would be wise to double-check via your lawyers. A purchaser's lawyer will not be happy to advise their client to to exchange contracts if the remaining number of years is less than 80 years. It is therefore 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.

We expect to complete the disposal of our £275000 maisonette in South Ruislip next week. The freeholder has quoted £312 for Certificate of Compliance, building insurance schedule and previous years service charge statements. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge such fees for a leasehold conveyance in South Ruislip?

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

• Answering pre-contract questions
• Where consent is required before sale in South Ruislip
• Supplying insurance information
• Deeds of covenant upon sale
• Registering of the assignment of the change of lessee after a sale

Your lawyer will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for South Ruislip leasehold property is £350. For South Ruislip 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 answers.

Notwithstanding our best endeavours, we have been unsuccessful in trying to purchase the freehold in South Ruislip. Can this matter be resolved via the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal?

Where there is a missing landlord or if there is dispute about what the lease extension should cost, under the relevant statutes you can apply to the LVT to assess the amount due.

An example of a Lease Extension matter before the tribunal for a South Ruislip flat is Flat 72 Queens Walk in January 2013. The Tribunals calculated the premium payable to be £22,090. This case was in relation to 1 flat. The the unexpired term as at the valuation date was 53.26 years.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in South Ruislip