My fiance and I may need to rent out our Brentwood 1st floor flat for a while due to a new job. We used a Brentwood conveyancing firm in 2003 but they have since shut and we did not have the foresight to seek any advice as to whether the lease allows us to sublet. How do we find out?

A lease dictates the relationship between the landlord and you the leaseholder; in particular, it will indicate if subletting is prohibited, or permitted but only subject to certain caveats. The accepted inference is that if the lease contains no specific ban or restriction, subletting is permitted. The majority of leases in Brentwood do not prevent an absolute prevention of subletting – such a clause would adversely affect the market value the flat. Instead, there is usually simply a requirement that the owner notifies the freeholder, possibly supplying a copy of the sublease.

There are only Sixty One years left on my lease in Brentwood. I need to get lease extension but my landlord is can not be found. What should I do?

If you qualify, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the County Court for an order to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will enable the lease to be granted an extra 90 years by the Court. However, you will be required to prove that you or your lawyers have made all reasonable attempts to track down the freeholder. On the whole an enquiry agent should be useful to conduct investigations and prepare a report which can be used as evidence that the freeholder is indeed missing. It is advisable to get professional help from a property lawyer in relation to proving the landlord’s disappearance and the vesting order request to the County Court covering Brentwood.

I’m about to sell my basement apartment in Brentwood.Conveyancing is yet to be initiated but I have just received a quarterly maintenance charge demand – should I leave it to the buyer to sort out?

It best that you pay the invoice as normal because all ground rent and service charges will be apportioned on completion, so you will be reimbursed by the buyer for the period running from after the completion date to the next payment date. Most managing agents will not acknowledge the buyer unless the service charges have been paid and are up to date so it is important for both buyer and seller for the seller to show that they are up to date. This will smooth the conveyancing process.

Can you provide any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Brentwood with the intention of speeding up the sale process?

• Much of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Brentwood can be avoided if you appoint lawyers the minute you market your property and request that they start to put together the leasehold documentation which will be required by the purchasers’ representatives.
• If you have carried out any alterations to the residence would they have required Landlord’s approval? Have you, for example installed wooden flooring? Brentwood leases often stipulate that internal structural alterations or installing wooden flooring necessitate a licence from the Landlord consenting to such works. Should you dont have the paperwork in place you should not contact the landlord without checking with your solicitor first.

Some Brentwood leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this is the case, you should notify your estate agents to make sure that the purchasers put in hand bank and professional references. Any bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are 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 solicitors.

If you are supposed to have a share in the Management Company, you should ensure that you are holding the original share certificate. Arranging a new share certificate can be a time consuming process and slows down many a Brentwood home move. Where a reissued share is necessary, you should approach the company officers or managing agents (where relevant) for this at the earliest opportunity.

You believe that you know the number of years left on your lease but you should double-check by asking your lawyers. A purchaser's conveyancer will be unlikely to recommend their client to where the lease term is less than 75 years. In the circumstances it is essential at an early stage that you identify whether the lease requires a lease extension. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your property on the market for sale.

All being well we will complete the disposal of our £325000 garden flat in Brentwood on Wednesday in a week. The landlords agents has quoted £420 for Certificate of Compliance, building insurance schedule and 3 years statements of service charge. Is the landlord entitled to charge an administration fee for a flat conveyance in Brentwood?

Brentwood conveyancing on leasehold maisonettes usually results in fees being invoiced by management companies :

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

Your lawyer will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for Brentwood leasehold premises is £350. For Brentwood 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 supply the information.

I am the registered owner of a basement flat in Brentwood. In the absence of agreement between myself and the landlord, can the Leasehold valuation Tribunal make a decision on the sum payable for the purchase of the freehold?

if there is a missing freeholder or where there is dispute about what the lease extension should cost, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal to arrive at the sum to be paid.

An example of a Lease Extension case for a Brentwood residence is 37 Lodge Court High Street in November 2013. the decision of the LVT was that the premium to be paid for the new lease was £25,559 This case was in relation to 1 flat. The the unexpired term as at the valuation date was 57.5 years.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Brentwood