Having had my offer accepted I require leasehold conveyancing in Peak District. Before I get started I require certainty as to the number of years remaining on the lease.

If the lease is recorded at the land registry - and 99.9% are in Peak District - then the leasehold title will always include the basic details 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.

Having checked my lease I have discovered that there are only Sixty One years remaining on my flat in Peak District. I now want to extend my lease but my freeholder is missing. What are my options?

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 enable the lease to be granted an extra 90 years by the magistrate. You will be obliged to prove that you or your lawyers have made all reasonable attempts to find the landlord. In some cases a specialist would be helpful to conduct investigations and prepare an expert document which can be accepted by the court as evidence that the freeholder is indeed missing. It is wise to seek advice from a solicitor in relation to proving the landlord’s absence and the application to the County Court covering Peak District.

I've recently bought a leasehold property in Peak District. Do I have any liability for service charges relating to a period prior to my ownership?

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. It is an essential part of leasehold conveyancing for your conveyancer to be sure 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 a negotiator for a reputable estate agent office in Peak District where we have experienced a number of leasehold sales derailed due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given contradictory information from local Peak District conveyancing solicitors. Can you confirm whether the owner of a flat can instigate the lease extension formalities for the buyer?

Provided that the seller has been the owner for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to start 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 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 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 purchaser.

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

• A significant proportion of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Peak District can be avoided if you get in touch lawyers as soon as your agents start advertising the property and request that they start to collate the leasehold information needed by the buyers representatives.
• If you have carried out any alterations to the property would they have required Landlord’s consent? In particular have you laid down wooden flooring? Most leases in Peak District state that internal structural changes or laying down wooden flooring necessitate a licence from the Landlord acquiescing to such alterations. If you dont have the paperwork to hand you should not communicate with the landlord without contacting your conveyancer in the first instance.
• Some Peak District leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this is the case, it would be prudent to place the estate agents on notice to make sure that the purchasers put in hand bank and professional references. Any bank reference should make it clear that the buyer is able to meet 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 actual amount of the service charge so that they can pass this information on to the buyers or their solicitors.
• If you have had any disputes with your landlord or managing agents it is essential that these are resolved prior to the flat being put on the market. The purchasers and their solicitors will be nervous about purchasing a property where there is a current dispute. You will have to accept that you will have to pay any arrears of service charge or settle the dispute prior to the buyers completing the purchase. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled ahead of the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You are still duty bound to disclose details of the dispute to the buyers, but it is clearly preferable to present the dispute as over rather than unresolved.
• If you have the benefit of shareholding in the freehold, you should ensure that you are holding the original share certificate. Obtaining a replacement share certificate is often a lengthy formality and delays many a Peak District conveyancing deal. Where a duplicate share is needed, you should approach the company officers or managing agents (if relevant) for this at the earliest opportunity.

I invested in buying a garden flat in Peak District, conveyancing having been completed 4 years ago. Can you give me give me an indication of the likely cost of a lease extension? Comparable flats in Peak District with an extended lease are worth £200,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £50 per annum. The lease comes to an end on 21st October 2090

With only 64 years unexpired we estimate the price of your lease extension to range between £16,200 and £18,600 plus professional fees.

The suggested premium range above a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we are not able to provide 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 may be other issues that need to be taken into account and you obviously want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. You should not take any other action based on this information before seeking the advice of a professional.