My fiance and I may need to rent out our Buckden garden flat temporarily due to a career opportunity. We used a Buckden conveyancing practice in 2002 but they have closed and we did not think at the time seek any guidance as to whether the lease allows us to sublet. How do we find out?

A lease dictates relations between the freeholder and you the flat owner; in particular, it will set out if subletting is not allowed, or permitted but only subject to certain caveats. The accepted inference is that if the lease contains no specific ban or restriction, subletting is allowed. The majority of leases in Buckden do not contain strict prohibition on subletting – such a provision would undoubtedly devalue the property. In most cases there is simply a requirement that the owner notifies the freeholder, possibly supplying a duplicate of the sublease.

Last month I purchased a leasehold property in Buckden. Am I liable to pay service charges for periods before my ownership?

In a situation 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. 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 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 work for a busy estate agent office in Buckden where we have witnessed a number of flat sales derailed as a result of leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have received contradictory information from local Buckden conveyancing solicitors. Can you clarify whether the seller of a flat can commence 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 proposed purchaser can avoid having to wait 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done prior to, 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 purchaser.

What advice can you give us when it comes to finding a Buckden conveyancing practice to carry out our lease extension conveyancing?

If you are instructing a conveyancer for your lease extension (regardless if they are a Buckden conveyancing practice) it is essential that they be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of work. We recommend that you make enquires with two or three firms including non Buckden conveyancing practices before you instructing a firm. Where the conveyancing practice is ALEP accredited then so much the better. Some following of questions could be helpful:

• What volume of lease extensions have they carried out in Buckden in the last 12 months?

Are there common problems that you witness in leases for Buckden properties?

Leasehold conveyancing in Buckden is not unique. Most leases are individual and legal mistakes in the legal wording can result in certain provisions are missing. The following missing provisions could result in a defective lease:

• A provision to repair to or maintain parts of the premises
• Insurance obligations
• A provision for the recovery of money spent for the benefit of another party.
• Maintenance charge proportions which don’t add up to the correct percentage

You may have a problem when selling your property if you have a defective lease primarily because it impacts on the ability to obtain a mortgage on the property. Birmingham Midshires, Bank of Scotland, and Britannia all have express conveyancing instructions when it comes to what is expected in a lease. Where a lender has been advised by their lawyers that the lease is defective they may refuse to grant the mortgage, forcing the buyer to withdraw.

I acquired a studio flat in Buckden, conveyancing having been completed 1998. Can you shed any light on how much the price could be for a 90 year extension to my lease? Equivalent properties in Buckden with an extended lease are worth £262,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £60 per annum. The lease runs out on 21st October 2079

With only 54 years remaining on your lease the likely cost is going to span between £33,300 and £38,400 as well as costs.

The figure that we have given is a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we are not able to supply a more accurate figure in the absence of detailed investigations. You should not use the figures in tribunal or court proceedings. There are no doubt additional issues that need to be taken into account and you obviously want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. You should not move forward based on this information before getting professional advice.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Buckden