My wife and I purchased a leasehold flat in Brentwood. Conveyancing and Britannia mortgage are in place. A letter has just been received from someone claiming to own the freehold. It included a demand for arrears of ground rent dating back to 1994. The conveyancing practitioner in Brentwood who acted for me is not around.Do I pay?

First make enquiries of HMLR to make sure that this person is in fact the new freeholder. There is no need to instruct a Brentwood conveyancing lawyer to do this as it can be done on-line for £3. Rest assured that regardless, even if this is the legitimate landlord, under the Limitation Act 1980 no more than 6 years of rent can be collected.

I am tempted by the attractive purchase price for a couple of maisonettes in Brentwood which have approximately fifty years left on the lease term. Will this present a problem?

There are plenty of short leases in Brentwood. The lease is a right to use the premises for a prescribed time frame. As a lease gets shorter the saleability of the lease deteriorate and results in it becoming more expensive to extend the lease. This is why it is advisable to increase the term of the lease. More often than not it is difficult to sell a property with a short lease because mortgage lenders may be unwilling to lend money on such properties. Lease extension can be a difficult process. We advise that you seek professional assistance from a solicitor and surveyor with experience in this arena

I've recently bought a leasehold property in Brentwood. 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 lessee and they have not paid you would not usually be personally liable for the arrears. Strange as it may seem, 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 ensure 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).

What advice can you give us when it comes to choosing a Brentwood conveyancing practice to deal with our lease extension?

When appointing a property lawyer for lease extension works (regardless if they are a Brentwood conveyancing firm) it is imperative that they be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of conveyancing. We recommend that you make enquires with several firms including non Brentwood conveyancing practices before you instructing a firm. If the firm is ALEP accredited then that’s a bonus. Some following of questions could be useful:

• Can they put you in touch with client in Brentwood who can give a testimonial?
• What are the legal fees for lease extension work?

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

• A significant proportion of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Brentwood can be bypassed where you instruct lawyers the minute your agents start marketing the property and ask them to put together the leasehold information which will be required by the purchasers’ solicitors.
• A minority of Brentwood 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 financial (bank) and professional references. Any bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are financially capable of paying 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 service charge figures so that they can pass this information on to the buyers or their lawyers.
• If you have had conflict with your freeholder or managing agents it is very important that these are settled prior to the flat being put on the market. The purchasers and their solicitors will be warry about purchasing a flat where there is an ongoing dispute. You will have to accept that you will have to discharge 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 are still duty bound to disclose particulars of the dispute to the purchasers, but it is better to reveal the dispute as historic as opposed to unsettled.
• If you are supposed to have a share in the freehold, you should ensure that you have the original share document. Organising a re-issued share certificate can be a time consuming process and frustrates many a Brentwood conveyancing transaction. Where a reissued share certificate is required, you should approach the company officers or managing agents (where applicable) for this sooner rather than later.
• You believe that you know the number of years remaining on your lease but you should double-check by asking your solicitors. A buyer’s lawyer will not be happy to advise their client to proceed with the purchase of a leasehold property the lease term is less than 80 years. It is therefore important at an early stage that you identify whether the lease for your property needs extending. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your premises on the market for sale.

Having spent months of correspondence we cannot agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in Brentwood. Does the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal have jurisdiction to calculate the appropriate figures?

Where there is a missing landlord or where there is disagreement about what the lease extension should cost, under the relevant statutes you can apply to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal to decide the price.

An example of a Lease Extension case for a Brentwood premises 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 related to 1 flat. The the unexpired term as at the valuation date was 57.5 years.

I invested in buying a ground floor flat in Brentwood, conveyancing was carried out in 1996. Can you give me give me an indication of the likely cost of a lease extension? Comparable properties in Brentwood with an extended lease are worth £227,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £50 charged once a year. The lease ends on 21st October 2083

With 57 years remaining on your lease we estimate the price of your lease extension to span between £25,700 and £29,600 plus costs.

The suggested premium range above a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we cannot give you the actual costs in the absence of detailed due diligence. Do not use this information in tribunal or court proceedings. There are no doubt other concerns that need to be considered and you obviously should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Neither should you move forward based on this information without first seeking the advice of a professional.