My wife and I may need to rent out our Battlesbridge garden flat temporarily due to a new job. We instructed a Battlesbridge conveyancing firm in 2002 but they have since shut and we did not think at the time seek any guidance as to whether the lease permits subletting. How do we find out?

Notwithstanding that your previous Battlesbridge conveyancing lawyer is not around you can review your lease to see if you are permitted to let out the apartment. The rule is that if the deeds are silent, subletting is allowed. There may be a precondition that you are obliged to obtain consent via your landlord or some other party in advance of subletting. This means you not allowed to sublet without first obtaining permission. The consent should not be unreasonably refused ore delayed. If the lease does not allow you to sublet you will need to ask your landlord for their consent.

My wife and I purchased a leasehold flat in Battlesbridge. Conveyancing and Barclays Direct mortgage are in place. I have received a letter from someone claiming to own the reversionary interest in the property. It included a demand for arrears of ground rent dating back to 1991. The conveyancing solicitor in Battlesbridge who acted for me is not around.What should I do?

The first thing you should do is make enquiries of HMLR to make 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 Battlesbridge conveyancing practitioner to do this as you can do this on the Land Registry website for £3. Rest assured that regardless, even if this is the rightful landlord, under the Limitation Act 1980 no more than 6 years of rent can be collected.

I am attracted to a two flats in Battlesbridge both have about forty five years remaining on the lease term. Do I need to be concerned?

There are no two ways about it. A leasehold flat in Battlesbridge is a wasting asset as a result of the shortening lease. The closer the lease gets to zero years unexpired, the more it reduces the salability of the property. The majority of purchasers and lenders, leases with less than eighty years become less and less marketable. On a more upbeat 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 Battlesbridge 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 They may agree to a smaller lump sum and an increase in the ground rent, but to shorter extension terms in return. 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.

Do you have any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Battlesbridge from the perspective of expediting the sale process?

• Much of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Battlesbridge can be bypassed if you appoint lawyers as soon as you market your property and request that they start to collate the leasehold documentation which will be required by the buyers representatives.
• Many freeholders or Management Companies in Battlesbridge levy fees for providing 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 as soon as you have a buyer, thus accelerating the process. The typical amount of time it takes to obtain the necessary information is three weeks. It is the most usual cause of delay in leasehold conveyancing in Battlesbridge.
• In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s consent? Have you, for example installed wooden flooring? Battlesbridge leases often stipulate that internal structural alterations or laying down wooden flooring calls for a licence from the Landlord approving such works. Should you fail to have the consents in place you should not communicate with the landlord without checking with your solicitor before hand.
• A minority of Battlesbridge leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this is the case, you should place the estate agents on notice to make sure that the purchasers obtain bank and professional references. The bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are financially capable of paying 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 service charge figures so that they can pass this information on to the buyers or their lawyers.
• If there is a history of any disputes with your freeholder or managing agents it is very important that these are settled before the property is put on the market. The purchasers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a property where there is an ongoing dispute. You may need to swallow your pride and pay any arrears of service charge or resolve 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 will still have to reveal particulars of the dispute to the buyers, but it is better to reveal the dispute as historic as opposed to ongoing.

Our conveyancer has advised that he intends to complete and exchange simultaneously on the sale of our £ 125000 maisonette in Battlesbridge on Tuesday in a week. The management company has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Certificate of Compliance, building insurance schedule and previous years statements of service charge. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge such fees for a leasehold conveyance in Battlesbridge?

Battlesbridge conveyancing on leasehold apartments typically necessitates administration charges raised by managing agents :

• Answering pre-contract enquiries
• Where consent is required before sale in Battlesbridge
• Supplying insurance information
• 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 Battlesbridge leasehold premises is £350. For Battlesbridge 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 provide the information.

Battlesbridge Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - A selection of Questions you should ask before buying

What restrictions are contained in the Battlesbridge Lease? It would be a good idea to find out if the the lease contains any onerous restrictions in the lease. By way of example it is reasonably common in Battlesbridge leases that pets are not allowed in certain buildings in Battlesbridge. If you like the apartmentin Battlesbridge but your cat is not allowed to live with you then you will be presented with a hard determination. Who manages the block?