My husband and I may need to sub-let our Yiewsley ground floor flat temporarily due to a career opportunity. We instructed a Yiewsley conveyancing firm in 2003 but they have since shut and we did not think at the time seek any advice as to whether the lease permits subletting. How do we find out?

Notwithstanding that your previous Yiewsley conveyancing solicitor is not around you can check your lease to see if it allows you to sublet the apartment. The rule is that if the lease is non-specific, subletting is allowed. There may be a precondition that you must obtain consent via your landlord or some other party in advance of subletting. This means that you cannot sublet without prior consent. Such consent is not allowed to be unreasonably turned down. If the lease does not allow you to sublet you should ask your landlord for their consent.

Having checked my lease I have discovered that there are only Sixty One years remaining on my lease in Yiewsley. I am keen to get lease extension but my freeholder is absent. What should I do?

If 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 mean that your lease can be extended by the magistrate. However, you will be required to prove that you have made all reasonable attempts to track down the lessor. In some cases an enquiry agent should be helpful to conduct investigations and prepare an expert document to be used as proof that the landlord can not be located. It is advisable to get professional help from a solicitor in relation to proving the landlord’s disappearance and the application to the County Court overseeing Yiewsley.

Looking forward to complete next month on a basement flat in Yiewsley. Conveyancing solicitors inform me that they are sending me a report on Monday. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?

The report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in Yiewsley should include some of the following:

• How long the lease is You should be advised as what happens when the lease ends, and aware of the importance of not letting the lease term falling below eighty years
• The physical extent of the demise. This will be the flat itself but may include a roof space or cellar if appropriate.
• An explanation as to the provision in the lease to pay service charges - with regard to both the building, and the more general rights a leaseholder has
• Whether your lease has a provision for a reserve fund?
• I don't know whether the lease allows me to alter or improve anything in the flat - you should know whether it applies to all alterations or just structural alteration, and whether consent is required
• Whether the landlord has obligations to ensure rights of quiet enjoyment over your property and do you know what it means in practice?
• The landlord’s obligations to repair and maintain the building. It is important that you know who is responsible for the repair and maintenance of every part of the building

Back In 2000, I bought a leasehold house in Yiewsley. Conveyancing and Aldermore mortgage went though with no issue. A letter has just been received from someone claiming to own the reversionary interest in the property. It included a demand for arrears of ground rent dating back to 1993. The conveyancing solicitor in Yiewsley who acted for me is not around.Any advice?

The first thing you should do is contact the Land Registry to be sure that the individual claiming to own the freehold is indeed the new freeholder. It is not necessary to incur the fees of a Yiewsley conveyancing practitioner to do this as you can do this on the Land Registry website for less than a fiver. Rest assured that in any event, even if this is the rightful landlord, under the Limitation Act 1980 the limitation period for recovery of ground rent is six years.

I am employed by a long established estate agent office in Yiewsley where we have witnessed a few flat sales put at risk as a result of leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have received contradictory information from local Yiewsley conveyancing solicitors. Could you confirm whether the vendor of a flat can instigate the lease extension formalities for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

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 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 has to be done prior to, or at the same time as completion of the sale.

An alternative approach is to agree the lease extension with the freeholder 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.

After years of correspondence we cannot agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in Yiewsley. Can we issue an application to the Residential Property Tribunal Service?

Most certainly. We are happy to put you in touch with a Yiewsley conveyancing firm who can help.

An example of a Freehold Enfranchisement decision for a Yiewsley property is 164 Nestles Avenue in October 2013. The tribunal agreed with the proposed price of £20,158 for the freehold and determined that that sum is the amount to be paid into court This case affected 2 flats. The the number of years remaining on the existing lease(s) was 69 years.

Yiewsley Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - Sample of Queries Prior to buying

Is there a share of the freehold? The majority of Yiewsley leasehold apartments will have a service bill for the upkeep of the building invoiced on behalf of the freeholder. If you acquire the apartment you will have to pay this contribution, normally in instalments throughout the year. This could vary from two or three hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for buildings with lifts and large communal grounds. There will also be a rentcharge for you to pay yearly, this is usually not a significant amount, say approximately £25-£75 but you need to enquire it because occasionally it could be surprisingly expensive.