There are only Fifty years remaining on my flat in Billericay. I now want to extend my lease but my landlord is missing. What are my options?

On the basis that you qualify, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can submit an application 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 Court. However, you will be required to prove that you have used your best endeavours to locate the landlord. For most situations a specialist may be helpful to try and locate and to produce a report which can be used as evidence that the freeholder is indeed missing. It is wise to seek advice from a solicitor in relation to investigating the landlord’s disappearance and the application to the County Court covering Billericay.

I am looking at a couple of flats in Billericay both have in the region of forty five years left on the leases. Should I regard a short lease as a deal breaker?

There are plenty of short leases in Billericay. The lease is a legal document that entitles you to use the premises for a period of time. As a lease shortens the marketability of the lease reduces and it becomes more costly to extend the lease. For this reason it is often a good idea to increase the term of the lease. It is often difficult to sell a property with a short lease as mortgage companies less inclined to grant a loan on properties of this type. Lease enfranchisement can be a protracted process. We recommend you seek professional assistance from a solicitor and surveyor with experience in this arena

I work for a busy estate agent office in Billericay where we have experienced a few flat sales derailed due to short leases. I have received contradictory information from local Billericay conveyancing solicitors. Please can you shed some light as to whether the owner of a flat can start the lease extension process for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

Provided that the seller has owned the lease for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to commence the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. The benefit of this is that the buyer 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 before, or simultaneously with 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 buyer.

Can you offer any advice when it comes to finding a Billericay conveyancing firm to deal with our lease extension?

If you are instructing a property lawyer for lease extension works (regardless if they are a Billericay conveyancing practice) it is most important that he or she should be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of work. We recommend that you make enquires with several firms including non Billericay conveyancing practices before you instructing a firm. If the firm is ALEP accredited then that’s a bonus. Some following of questions could be helpful:

• What volume of lease extensions have they conducted in Billericay in the last 12 months?
• Can they put you in touch with client in Billericay who can give a testimonial?

Can you provide any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Billericay from the perspective of speeding up the sale process?

• Much of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Billericay can be avoided if you appoint lawyers the minute you market your property and ask them to collate the leasehold documentation needed by the purchasers’ conveyancers.
• Many landlords or managing agents in Billericay levy fees for providing management packs for a leasehold homes. You or your lawyers should find out the actual amount of the charges. The management pack sought on or before finding a buyer, thus reducing delays. The typical amount of time it takes to obtain the necessary information is three weeks. It is the most common cause of delay in leasehold conveyancing in Billericay.
• If you have carried out any alterations to the property would they have required Landlord’s approval? In particular have you installed wooden flooring? Most leases in Billericay state that internal structural changes or addition of wooden flooring require a licence from the Landlord consenting to such works. Where you fail to have the approvals in place you should not contact the landlord without contacting your conveyancer before hand.
• A minority of Billericay leases require Landlord’s consent to the sale and approval of the buyers. If this applies to your lease, you should notify your estate agents 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 yearly 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 make sure that you are holding the original share document. Arranging a duplicate share certificate can be a lengthy process and frustrates many a Billericay home move. Where a duplicate share is needed, do contact the company director and secretary or managing agents (if relevant) for this sooner rather than later.

Billericay Leasehold Conveyancing - Sample of Questions you should consider before buying

It is important to be aware whether changing the roof or some other major work is pending to be shared by the leaseholders and will materially increase the the maintenance costs or result in a one time payment.