Expecting to complete next month on a studio apartment in Brighton. Conveyancing solicitors inform me that they will have a report out to me next week. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?

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

• You should be sent a copy of the lease

The total extent of the premises. This will be the flat itself but might include a loft or cellar if appropriate.

Do you need to have carpet in the flat or are you allowed wood flooring?

Will you be prohibited or prevented from having pets in the property?

Ground rent - how much and when you need to pay, and also know whether this will change in the future

Repair and maintenance of the flat

What options are open to you if a neighbour is in violation of a provision in their lease? For details of the information to be contained in your report on your leasehold property in Brighton please enquire of your conveyancer in advance of your conveyancing in Brighton

Back In 2008, I bought a leasehold flat in Brighton. Conveyancing and Nottingham Building Society 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 1997. The conveyancing solicitor in Brighton who acted for me is not around.What should I do?

The first thing you should do is make enquiries of the Land Registry to make sure that the individual purporting to own the freehold is indeed the new freeholder. You do not need to incur the fees of a Brighton conveyancing solicitor to do this as you can do this on the Land Registry website for less than a fiver. 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 work for a busy estate agent office in Brighton where we have experienced a number of leasehold sales derailed due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have received contradictory information from local Brighton conveyancing firms. Can you shed some light as to whether the seller of a flat can start the lease extension process for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

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. This means that the proposed purchaser can avoid having to wait 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done prior to, or at the same time as completion of the sale.

Alternatively, it may be possible 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.

Our conveyancer has advised that he intends to complete and exchange simultaneously on our sale of a £425000 apartment in Brighton next Monday . The landlords agents has quoted £360 for Certificate of Compliance, building insurance schedule and 3 years service charge statements. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge an administration fee for a flat conveyance in Brighton?

For most leasehold sales in Brighton conveyancing will involve, questions about the management of a building inevitably needing to be answered directly by the freeholder or its agent, this includes :

• Completing pre-contract enquiries
• Where consent is required before sale in Brighton
• 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 lawyer will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for Brighton leasehold premises is £350. For Brighton 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 answers.

Are there common defects that you come across in leases for Brighton properties?

There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Brighton. Most leases are unique and drafting errors can result in certain sections are missing. The following missing provisions could result in a defective lease:

• Repairing obligations to or maintain elements of the building
• Insurance obligations
• Clauses dealing with recovering service charges for expenditure on the building or common parts.
• Maintenance charge proportions which don’t add up to the correct percentage

A defective lease will likely cause problems when trying to sell a property as they can affect a potential buyer’s ability to obtain a mortgage. Nationwide Building Society, Norwich and Peterborough Building Society, and Barclays Direct all have very detailed conveyancing instructions when it comes to what is expected in a lease. If a mortgage lender believes that the lease is defective they may refuse to grant the mortgage, forcing the purchaser to withdraw.

I inherited a 2 bed flat in Brighton, conveyancing formalities finalised in 1997. Can you please calculate a probable premium for a statutory lease extension? Comparable properties in Brighton with an extended lease are worth £267,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £45 yearly. The lease ceases on 21st October 2102

You have 80 years left to run we estimate the premium for your lease extension to range between £9,500 and £11,000 as well as legals.

The suggested premium range that we have given is a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we cannot give you a more accurate figure without more detailed due diligence. You should not use this information in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There may be additional concerns that need to be taken into account and clearly you should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. You should not take any other action based on this information without first getting professional advice.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Brighton