Having checked my lease I have discovered that there are only 62 years unexpired on my lease in Bury. I now want to extend my lease but my freeholder is can not be found. What should I do?

If 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 extended by the Court. However, you will be required to demonstrate that you have done all that could be expected to locate the landlord. On the whole a specialist should be useful to conduct investigations and to produce a report to be accepted by the court as proof that the landlord can not be located. It is wise to seek advice from a solicitor in relation to investigating the landlord’s disappearance and the application to the County Court covering Bury.

I am looking at a two apartments in Bury which have approximately forty five years remaining on the lease term. Do I need to be concerned?

A lease is a legal document that entitles you to use the property for a period of time. As a lease shortens the saleability of the lease decreases and results in it becoming more costly to acquire a lease extension. For this reason it is generally wise to increase the term of the lease. More often than not it is difficulties arise selling premises with a short lease as mortgage companies may be unwilling to lend money on properties of this type. Lease extension can be a difficult process. We recommend you seek professional assistance from a conveyancer and surveyor with experience in this area

Last month I purchased a leasehold house in Bury. Do I have any liability for 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. A critical element 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).

We expect to complete the disposal of our £ 325000 apartment in Bury in just under a week. The landlords agents has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Landlord’s certificate, building insurance schedule and 3 years service charge statements. Is the landlord entitled to charge such fees for a flat conveyance in Bury?

Bury conveyancing on leasehold apartments usually requires the purchaser’s solicitor submitting questions for the landlord to address. Although the landlord is under no legal obligation to respond to these enquiries the majority will be content to assist. They are entitled charge a reasonable administration fee for responding to questions or supplying documentation. There is no upper cap for such fees. The average fee for the information that you are referring to is £350, in some situations it is in excess of £800. The management information fee levied by the landlord must be sent together with a synopsis of entitlements and obligations in respect of administration fees, otherwise the charge is not strictly payable. In reality you have little choice but to pay whatever is demanded if you want to exchange contracts with the buyer.

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

There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Bury. All leases are unique and drafting errors can sometimes mean that certain provisions are wrong. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:

• Repairing obligations to or maintain parts of the premises
• 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 issues when trying to sell a property as they can affect a potential buyer’s ability to obtain a mortgage. Halifax, Barnsley Building Society, and Godiva Mortgages Ltd 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 buyer to withdraw.

I purchased a ground floor flat in Bury, conveyancing formalities finalised half a dozen years ago. Can you shed any light on how much the price could be for a 90 year extension to my lease? Equivalent flats in Bury with over 90 years remaining are worth £201,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £50 invoiced every year. The lease expires on 21st October 2099

With 73 years unexpired we estimate the premium for your lease extension to span between £10,500 and £12,000 plus legals.

The figure above a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we are not able to supply a more accurate figure in the absence of comprehensive investigations. You should not use the figures in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There are no doubt additional 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 placing reliance on this information before seeking the advice of a professional.