I only have Sixty One years remaining on my flat in Longhope. I now want to extend my lease 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 submit an application to the County Court for an order to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will enable the lease to be granted an extra 90 years by the Court. However, you will be required to demonstrate that you or your lawyers have used your best endeavours to find the lessor. On the whole an enquiry agent may be useful to try and locate and prepare an expert document which can be accepted by the court as evidence that the freeholder can not be located. It is wise to seek advice from a conveyancer both on proving the landlord’s disappearance and the vesting order request to the County Court covering Longhope.

I today plan to offer on a house that seems to tick a lot of boxes, at a great price which is making it more attractive. I have just discovered that the title is leasehold rather than freehold. I am assuming that there are issues purchasing a leasehold house in Longhope. Conveyancing lawyers have are about to be instructed. Will they explain the issues?

The majority of houses in Longhope are freehold and not leasehold. This is one of the situations where having a local solicitor used to dealing with such properties who can help the conveyancing process. It is clear that you are purchasing in Longhope so you should seriously consider shopping around for a Longhope conveyancing practitioner and be sure that they are used to dealing with leasehold houses. First you will need to check the unexpired lease term. Being a lessee you will not be entirely free to do whatever you want with the house. The lease comes with conditions such as requiring the freeholder’spermission to carry out alterations. It may be necessary to pay a maintenance charge towards the maintenance of the communal areas where the house is located on an estate. Your conveyancer will appraise you on the various issues.

I work for a long established estate agency in Longhope where we have witnessed a number of leasehold sales derailed due to short leases. I have been given contradictory information from local Longhope conveyancing firms. Please can you shed some light as to whether the seller 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 kick-start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. This means that the proposed purchaser need not have to sit tight for 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed before, or simultaneously with completion of the sale.

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.

Our conveyancer has advised that he intends to complete and exchange simultaneously on our sale of a £ 450000 apartment in Longhope next Wednesday . The managing agents has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Certificate of Compliance, insurance certificate and previous years service charge statements. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge an administration fee for a leasehold conveyance in Longhope?

Longhope conveyancing on leasehold maisonettes usually involves the purchaser’s lawyer submitting enquiries for the landlord to address. Although the landlord is not legally bound to respond to these enquiries most will be content to do so. They are entitled charge a reasonable charge for responding to enquiries or supplying documentation. There is no set fee. The average fee for the paperwork that you are referring to is over three hundred pounds, in some cases it is above £800. The management information fee required by the landlord must be sent together with a synopsis of rights and obligations in relation to administration charges, without which the invoice is technically not due. Reality however dictates that you have little choice but to pay whatever is requested of you if you want to exchange contracts with the buyer.

What are the common deficiencies that you see in leases for Longhope properties?

There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Longhope. Most leases are unique and drafting errors can result in certain sections are erroneous. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:

• Repairing obligations to or maintain elements of the premises
• Insurance obligations
• Clauses dealing with recovering service charges for expenditure on the building or common parts.
• Service charge per centages that don't add up correctly leaving a shortfall

A defective lease will likely cause issues when trying to sell a property primarily because it impacts on the ability to obtain a mortgage on the property. National Westminster Bank, Chelsea Building Society, and Platform Home Loans Ltd all have express conveyancing instructions when it comes to what is expected in a lease. If a mortgage lender believes that the lease does not cover certain provisions they may refuse to grant the mortgage, forcing the purchaser to withdraw.

I inherited a basement flat in Longhope, conveyancing was carried out 9 years ago. How much will my lease extension cost? Equivalent properties in Longhope with an extended lease are worth £267,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £50 charged once a year. The lease runs out on 21st October 2094

You have 68 years left to run we estimate the price of your lease extension to be between £14,300 and £16,400 as well as costs.

The figure above a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we cannot give you a more accurate figure without more detailed investigations. You should not use this information in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There are no doubt additional concerns that need to be taken into account and clearly you should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. You should not move forward placing reliance on this information without first getting professional advice.