I have recently realised that I have 62 years remaining on my flat in Alston. I now want to extend my lease but my landlord is can not be found. What options are available to me?

On the basis that you qualify, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the County Court for for permission to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will mean that your lease can be granted an extra 90 years by the magistrate. However, you will be required to prove that you or your lawyers have used your best endeavours to track down the landlord. In some cases an enquiry agent may be helpful to carry out a search and prepare a report to be used as evidence that the landlord can not be located. It is advisable to get professional help from a solicitor both on proving the landlord’s absence and the vesting order request to the County Court covering Alston.

I am looking at a couple of maisonettes in Alston both have approximately fifty years left on the lease term. Should I regard a short lease as a deal breaker?

There are plenty of short leases in Alston. The lease is a right to use the property for a period of time. As a lease shortens the saleability of the lease deteriorate and it becomes more expensive to acquire a lease extension. This is why it is generally wise to increase the term of the lease. Sometimes it is difficulties arise selling premises with a short lease because mortgage lenders less inclined to grant a loan on such properties. Lease enfranchisement can be a difficult process. We recommend you get professional assistance from a conveyancer and surveyor with experience in this arena

I am a negotiator for a reputable estate agency in Alston where we see a number of flat sales jeopardised due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have received inconsistent advice from local Alston conveyancing firms. Could you confirm whether the seller of a flat can initiate the lease extension process for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

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 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 has to be done before, or simultaneously with completion of the disposal of the property.

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.

Can you offer any advice when it comes to finding a Alston conveyancing practice to carry out our lease extension conveyancing?

If you are instructing a solicitor for your lease extension (regardless if they are a Alston conveyancing practice) it is imperative that they be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of work. We recommend that you talk with several firms including non Alston conveyancing practices prior to instructing a firm. If the firm is ALEP accredited then so much the better. Some following of questions could be helpful:

• How familiar is the firm with lease extension legislation?

Do you have any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Alston from the perspective of saving time on the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Alston can be bypassed where you instruct lawyers the minute you market your property and request that they start to put together the leasehold information which will be required by the buyers representatives.
• The majority freeholders or Management Companies in Alston charge for supplying management packs for a leasehold property. You or your lawyers should discover the actual amount of the charges. The management information can be applied for on or before finding a buyer, thus reducing delays. The average time it takes to obtain the necessary information is three weeks. It is the most common cause of delay in leasehold conveyancing in Alston.

I bought a basement flat in Alston, conveyancing formalities finalised 1996. Can you work out an approximate cost of a lease extension? Corresponding properties in Alston with a long lease are worth £198,000. The ground rent is £65 levied per year. The lease expires on 21st October 2101

You have 76 years left to run we estimate the price of your lease extension to range between £9,500 and £11,000 plus professional fees.

The figure above a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we are not able to advice on the actual costs in the absence of comprehensive investigations. You should not use this information in tribunal or court proceedings. There may be other concerns that need to be taken into account and clearly you should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Neither should you take any other action based on this information before getting professional advice.

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Lease Extensions in Alston