I only have Seventy years unexpired on my flat in Buckley. I need to extend my lease but my landlord is missing. What should I do?

On the basis that you meet the appropriate requirements, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the County Court for for permission to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will enable the lease to be lengthened by the Court. You will be obliged to demonstrate that you have used your best endeavours to find the freeholder. In some cases a specialist should be useful to conduct investigations and to produce a report which can be used as proof that the freeholder is indeed missing. It is wise to seek advice from a property lawyer in relation to devolving into the landlord’s disappearance and the application to the County Court overseeing Buckley.

I’m about to sell my 2 bed apartment in Buckley.Conveyancing solicitors are to be appointed soon but I have just received a half-yearly maintenance charge demand – Do I pay up?

Your conveyancing lawyer is likely to suggest that you should discharge 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 until 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. Having a clear account will assist your cause and will leave you no worse off financially.

I am attracted to a two maisonettes in Buckley which have about 50 years left on the lease term. Will this present a problem?

There are no two ways about it. A leasehold apartment in Buckley is a deteriorating asset as a result of the reducing lease term. The nearer the lease gets to zero years unexpired, the more it adversely affects the salability of the property. For most buyers and lenders, leases with less than eighty years become less and less marketable. On a more positive note, leaseholders can extend their leases by serving a Section 42 Notice. One stipulation is that they must have owned the premises for two years (unlike a Section 13 notice for purchasing the freehold, when leaseholders can participate from day one of ownership). When successful, they will have the right to an extension of 90 years to the current term and ground rent is effectively reduced to zero. Before moving forward with a purchase of a residence with a short lease term remaining you should talk to a solicitor specialising in lease extensions and leasehold enfranchisement. We are are happy to put you in touch with Buckley conveyancing experts who will explain the options available to you during an initial telephone conversation free of charge. More often than not it is possible to negotiate informally with the freeholder to extend the lease They may agree to a smaller lump sum and an increase in the ground rent, but to shorter extension terms in return. You need to ensure that any new terms represent good long-term value compared with the standard benefits of the Section 42 Notice and that onerous clauses are not inserted into any redrafting of the lease.

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

• A significant proportion of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Buckley can be reduced where you appoint lawyers as soon as your agents start advertising the property and request that they start to put together the leasehold information which will be required by the buyers lawyers.
• Many freeholders or Management Companies in Buckley charge for providing management packs for a leasehold property. You or your lawyers should find out the actual amount of the charges. The management information can be applied for as soon as you have a buyer, thus reducing delays. The average time it takes to receive management information is three weeks. It is the most frequent cause of frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Buckley.

In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s consent? In particular have you installed wooden flooring? Most leases in Buckley state that internal structural alterations or installing wooden flooring require a licence issued by the Landlord approving such alterations. Should you fail to have the approvals in place you should not communicate with the landlord without checking with your lawyer in advance.

A minority of Buckley leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this applies to your lease, you should notify your estate agents to make sure that the purchasers obtain bank and professional references. Any bank reference should make it clear that the buyer is financially capable of paying the annual 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.

You believe that you know the number of years remaining on your lease but you should verify this via your solicitors. A purchaser's conveyancer will not be happy to advise their client to to exchange contracts if the remaining number of years is under 80 years. It is therefore essential at an as soon as possible that you identify whether the lease for your property needs extending. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your property on the market for sale.

If all goes to plan we aim to complete the disposal of our £375000 apartment in Buckley on Wednesday in a week. The freeholder has quoted £396 for Certificate of Compliance, insurance certificate and 3 years service charge statements. Is the landlord entitled to charge an administration fee for a flat conveyance in Buckley?

Buckley conveyancing on leasehold apartments nine out of ten times results in fees being raised by landlords agents :

• Answering pre-contract enquiries
• Where consent is required before sale in Buckley
• Supplying insurance information
• 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 Buckley leasehold property is £350. For Buckley 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 inherited a 1 bedroom flat in Buckley, conveyancing formalities finalised in 2000. How much will my lease extension cost? Equivalent properties in Buckley with an extended lease are worth £240,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £50 charged once a year. The lease comes to an end on 21st October 2102

You have 77 years left to run the likely cost is going to be between £10,500 and £12,000 as well as costs.

The suggested premium range that we have given is a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we cannot give you a more accurate figure in the absence of comprehensive investigations. You should not use the figures in tribunal or court proceedings. There may be other issues that need to be taken into account and clearly you want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Please do not move forward based on this information without first seeking the advice of a professional.

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Lease Extensions in Buckley