Having checked my lease I have discovered that there are only 68 years left on my flat in Bacup. I am keen to get lease extension but my landlord is absent. What options are available to me?

If 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 made all reasonable attempts to track down the landlord. For most situations an enquiry agent should be helpful to try and locate and prepare an expert document to be used as evidence that the landlord is indeed missing. It is advisable to get professional help from a solicitor both on investigating the landlord’s absence and the application to the County Court covering Bacup.

You should [be sent a copy of the lease|receive a copy of the lease]

Due to sign contracts shortly on a basement flat in Bacup. Conveyancing solicitors inform me that they report fully next week. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?

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

• Setting out your legal entitlements in respect of the communal areas in the block.E.G., does the lease contain a right of way over a path or hallways?
• Does the lease prevent you from renting out the flat, or working from home
• You should have a good understanding of the insurance provisions
• Repair and maintenance of the flat
• 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 premises 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

For details of the information to be contained in your report on your leasehold property in Bacup please ask your solicitor in advance of your conveyancing in Bacup

Back In 2000, I bought a leasehold flat in Bacup. Conveyancing and Birmingham Midshires mortgage are in place. A letter has just been received from someone saying they have taken over the freehold. Attached was a ground rent demand for rent dating back to 1991. The conveyancing practitioner in Bacup who previously acted has long since retired.Any advice?

First contact HMLR to be sure that the individual purporting to own the freehold is in fact the registered owner of the freehold reversion. You do not need to instruct a Bacup conveyancing firm to do this as it can be done on-line for a few pound. You should note that regardless, 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 attracted to a couple of flats in Bacup both have in the region of fifty years unexpired on the leases. Do I need to be concerned?

There is no doubt about it. A leasehold flat in Bacup is a deteriorating asset as a result of the reducing lease term. The nearer the lease gets to its expiry date, the more it adversely affects the value of the premises. The majority of purchasers and mortgage companies, leases with under eighty years become less and less attractive. On a more positive note, leaseholders can extend their leases by serving a Section 42 Notice. One stipulation is that they must have owned the property for two years (unlike a Section 13 notice for purchasing the freehold, when leaseholders can participate from day one of ownership). When successful, they will have the right to an extension of 90 years to the current term and ground rent is effectively reduced to zero. Before moving forward with a purchase of premises with a short lease term remaining you should talk to a solicitor specialising in lease extensions and leasehold enfranchisement. We are are happy to put you in touch with Bacup conveyancing experts who will explain the options available to you during an initial telephone conversation free of charge. A more straightforward and quicker method of extending would be to contact your landlord directly and sound him out on the prospect of extending the lease You may find he or she is happy to negotiate informally and willing to consider your offer straight off, without having to involve anyone else. This will save you time and money and it could help you reach a lower price on the lease. You need to ensure that any new terms represent good long-term value compared with the standard benefits of the Section 42 Notice and that onerous clauses are not inserted into any redrafting of the lease.

Completion in due on the sale of our £ 450000 flat in Bacup next week. The freeholder has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Landlord’s certificate, building insurance schedule and 3 years statements of service charge. Is the landlord entitled to charge an administration fee for a leasehold conveyance in Bacup?

For the majority of leasehold sales in Bacup conveyancing will involve, questions about the management of a building inevitably needing to be answered directly by the freeholder or its agent, this includes :

• Answering pre-exchange questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Bacup
• Supplying insurance information
• Deeds of covenant upon sale
• Registering of the assignment of the change of lessee after a sale

Your solicitor will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for Bacup leasehold property is £350. For Bacup 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 obliged to supply answers.

I am the registered owner of a ground floor flat in Bacup, conveyancing formalities finalised 1998. Can you work out an approximate cost of a lease extension? Comparable properties in Bacup with a long lease are worth £258,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £65 levied per year. The lease ends on 21st October 2100

With 74 years unexpired the likely cost is going to span between £13,300 and £15,400 plus plus your own and the landlord's "reasonable" professional fees.

The suggested premium range above a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we cannot give you a more accurate figure in the absence of detailed investigations. You should not use the figures in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There are no doubt other issues that need to be considered and you obviously should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Please do not move forward placing reliance on this information before getting professional advice.