Expecting to complete next month on a garden flat in Southborough. Conveyancing lawyers inform me that they report fully on Monday. What should I be looking out for?

Your report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in Southborough should include some of the following:

• The length of the lease term You should be advised as what happens when the lease expires, and aware of the importance of not letting the lease term falling below eighty years

I am looking at a couple of apartments in Southborough which have in the region of fifty years unexpired on the leases. Should I regard a short lease as a deal breaker?

There are plenty of short leases in Southborough. The lease is a right to use the property for a prescribed time frame. As a lease gets shorter the marketability of the lease reduces and it becomes more costly to extend the lease. This is why it is advisable to increase the term of the lease. More often than not it is difficult to sell a property with a short lease because mortgage companies may be reluctant to lend money on such properties. Lease enfranchisement can be a protracted process. We advise that you seek professional help from a conveyancer and surveyor with experience in this arena

Last month I purchased a leasehold property in Southborough. Am I liable to pay service charges relating to a period prior to completion of my purchase?

In a situation where the service charge has already been demanded from the previous owner and they have not paid you would not usually be personally liable for the arrears. Strange as it may seem, your landlord may still be able to take action to forfeit the lease. A critical element 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 employed by a busy estate agent office in Southborough where we see a few leasehold sales derailed as a result of short leases. I have received conflicting advice from local Southborough conveyancing solicitors. Could you shed some light as to whether the vendor of a flat can instigate the lease extension formalities for the buyer?

As long as the seller has been the owner for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to commence the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. The benefit of this is that the buyer 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 has to be done prior to, or simultaneously with completion of the disposal of the property.

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.

We expect to complete our sale of a £375000 flat in Southborough on Wednesday in a week. The managing agents has quoted £420 for Landlord’s certificate, insurance certificate and 3 years service charge statements. Is the landlord entitled to charge such fees for a leasehold conveyance in Southborough?

Southborough conveyancing on leasehold apartments more often than not necessitates the purchaser’s solicitor submitting enquiries for the landlord to address. Although the landlord is not legally bound to respond to these enquiries the majority will be willing to do so. They are at liberty invoice a reasonable charge for responding to enquiries or supplying documentation. There is no upper cap for such fees. The average costs for the paperwork that you are referring to is £350, in some cases it is in excess of £800. The management information fee demanded by the landlord must be accompanied by a synopsis of entitlements and obligations in relation to administration charges, without which the charge is technically not due. In reality you have little option but to pay whatever is demanded should you wish to sell the property.

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

Most certainly. We can put you in touch with a Southborough conveyancing firm who can help.

An example of a Lease Extension matter before the tribunal for a Southborough 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 lease term was 50.57 years.