My fiance and I may need to let out our Peak District garden flat for a while due to a new job. We instructed a Peak District conveyancing firm in 2003 but they have closed and we did not have the foresight to get any advice as to whether the lease permits subletting. How do we find out?

Notwithstanding that your previous Peak District conveyancing lawyer is not available you can check your lease to check if it allows you to sublet the property. The accepted inference is that if the deeds are non-specific, subletting is permitted. Quite often there is a prerequisite that you are obliged to seek permission from your landlord or other appropriate person in advance of subletting. This means that you cannot sublet in the absence of first obtaining permission. The consent should not be unreasonably turned down. If the lease does not allow you to sublet you will need to ask your landlord if they are willing to waive this restriction.

Last month I purchased a leasehold house in Peak District. Do I have any liability for service charges for periods before completion of my purchase?

Where the service charge has already been demanded from the previous lessee 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 work for a reputable estate agent office in Peak District where we have witnessed a number of leasehold sales put at risk due to short leases. I have received contradictory information from local Peak District conveyancing solicitors. Please can you clarify whether the vendor of a flat can initiate the lease extension formalities for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

As long as the seller has owned the lease 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. 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 prior to, or at the same time as 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 purchaser.

Can you provide any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Peak District from the point of view of saving time on the sale process?

• Much of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Peak District can be avoided where you instruct lawyers as soon as your agents start marketing the property and request that they start to put together the leasehold information which will be required by the buyers solicitors.
• The majority freeholders or managing agents in Peak District charge for supplying management packs for a leasehold premises. You or your lawyers should find out the fee that they propose to charge. The management information sought as soon as you have a buyer, thus accelerating the process. The average time it takes to obtain the necessary information is three weeks. It is the most frequent reason for frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Peak District.
• Some Peak District 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 put in hand financial (bank) and professional references. The bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are 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 lawyers.
• If you hold a share in a the freehold, you should ensure that you have the original share document. Obtaining a new share certificate is often a lengthy formality and slows down many a Peak District conveyancing deal. Where a new share certificate is required, do contact the company officers or managing agents (if applicable) for this at the earliest opportunity.
• You believe that you know the number of years remaining on your lease but it would be advisable verify this by asking your conveyancers. A purchaser's conveyancer will be unlikely to recommend their client to to exchange contracts if the lease term is less than 80 years. In the circumstances it is important at an early stage that you identify whether the lease requires a lease extension. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your property on the market for sale.

Our conveyancer has advised that he intends to complete and exchange simultaneously on our sale of a £ 450000 maisonette in Peak District on Tuesday in a week. The managing agents has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Landlord’s certificate, insurance certificate and 3 years service charge statements. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge an administration fee for a leasehold conveyance in Peak District?

Peak District conveyancing on leasehold flats normally necessitates fees being levied by managing agents :

• Completing pre-exchange questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Peak District
• Copies of the building insurance and schedule
• Deeds of covenant upon sale
• Registering of the assignment of the change of lessee after a sale

Your conveyancer will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for Peak District leasehold premises is £350. For Peak District 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 supply the information.

Leasehold Conveyancing in Peak District - A selection of Questions you should consider Prior to buying

Best to be warned if changing the roof or some other major work is anticipated to be shared by the tenants and may well dramatically increase the the service fees or result in a specific payment. Is there a share of the freehold?