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

I am hoping to complete next month on a garden flat in Bollington. Conveyancing solicitors have said that they report fully on Monday. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?

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

• How long the lease is You should be advised as what happens when the lease expires, and informed of the importance of not letting the lease term falling below eighty years
• The total extent of the demise. This will be the apartment itself but could also include a loft or basement if applicable.
• Does the lease require carpeting throughout thus preventing wood flooring?
• You must be told what counts as a Nuisance in the lease
• Ground rent - how much and when you need to pay, and also know whether this will change in the future
• Whether your lease has a provision for a reserve fund?

For details of the information to be contained in your report on your leasehold property in Bollington please enquire of your solicitor in ahead of your conveyancing in Bollington

I've recently bought a leasehold flat in Bollington. Do I have any liability for service charges relating to a period prior to my ownership?

Where the service charge has already been demanded from the previous owner and they have not paid you would not usually be personally liable for the arrears. However, your landlord may still be able to take action to forfeit the lease. It is an essential part of leasehold conveyancing for your conveyancer to be sure 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 am employed by a busy estate agent office in Bollington where we have experienced a number of leasehold sales derailed as a result of short leases. I have been given conflicting advice from local Bollington conveyancing solicitors. Could you clarify whether the owner of a flat can commence the lease extension formalities for the buyer?

Provided that the seller has been the owner 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 proposed purchaser need not have to wait 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 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 Bollington conveyancing practice to carry out our lease extension conveyancing?

If you are instructing a conveyancer for lease extension works (regardless if they are a Bollington conveyancing practice) it is imperative that he or she should be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of work. We suggested that you make enquires with two or three firms including non Bollington conveyancing practices prior to instructing a firm. If the firm is ALEP accredited then that’s a bonus. Some following of questions could be useful:

• How familiar is the firm with lease extension legislation?
• What volume of lease extensions have they completed in Bollington in the last 12 months?

Completion in due on the sale of our £ 400000 garden flat in Bollington in 8 days. The management company has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Landlord’s certificate, building insurance schedule and 3 years statements of service charge. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge an administration fee for a flat conveyance in Bollington?

Bollington conveyancing on leasehold flats nine out of ten times involves administration charges raised by managing agents :

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

I invested in buying a ground floor flat in Bollington, conveyancing formalities finalised half a dozen years ago. How much will my lease extension cost? Similar flats in Bollington with an extended lease are worth £222,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £55 invoiced annually. The lease runs out on 21st October 2084

You have 58 years left to run we estimate the price of your lease extension to range between £27,600 and £31,800 plus legals.

The figure that we have given is a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we are not able to provide the actual costs in the absence of detailed due diligence. Do not use the figures in tribunal or court proceedings. There may be other issues that need to be considered and you obviously should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. You should not move forward placing reliance on this information before seeking the advice of a professional.