I am on look out for some leasehold conveyancing in Chesham. Before I set the wheels in motion I would like to find out the number of years remaining on the lease.

If the lease is recorded at the land registry - and 99.9% are in Chesham - then the leasehold title will always include the short particulars of the lease, namely the date; the term; and the original parties. From a conveyancing perspective such details then enable any prospective buyer and lender to confirm that any lease they are looking at is the one relevant to that title.For any other purpose, such as confirming how long the term was granted for and calculating what is left, then the register should be sufficient on it's own.

There are only 72 years left on my lease in Chesham. I now wish to get lease extension but my landlord is absent. What are my options?

If you qualify, 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 mean that your lease can be extended by the Court. You will be obliged to demonstrate that you have done all that could be expected to track down the freeholder. On the whole a specialist should be helpful to try and locate and prepare a report to be accepted by the court as proof that the landlord can not be located. It is advisable to get professional help from a property lawyer both on devolving into the landlord’s disappearance and the vesting order request to the County Court overseeing Chesham.

I work for a busy estate agency in Chesham where we see a number of flat sales jeopardised due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have received conflicting advice from local Chesham conveyancing firms. Please can you confirm whether the vendor of a flat can start the lease extension formalities for the buyer?

Provided that the seller has owned the lease for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to kick-start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. This means that the buyer can avoid having to sit tight for 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed prior to, or at the same time as completion of the disposal of the property.

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 buyer.

Can you offer any advice when it comes to choosing a Chesham conveyancing firm to deal with our lease extension?

If you are instructing a conveyancer for lease extension works (regardless if they are a Chesham conveyancing firm) it is imperative that they be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of work. We recommend that you speak with several firms including non Chesham conveyancing practices before you instructing a firm. Where the conveyancing practice is ALEP accredited then so much the better. Some following of questions might be of use:

• How experienced is the practice with lease extension legislation?
• What volume of lease extensions have they conducted in Chesham in the last year?

If all goes to plan we aim to complete our sale of a £ 150000 apartment in Chesham next week. The management company has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Landlord’s certificate, building insurance schedule and previous years service charge statements. Is the landlord entitled to charge such fees for a flat conveyance in Chesham?

Chesham conveyancing on leasehold maisonettes often involves the purchaser’s solicitor sending questions for the landlord to answer. Although the landlord is under no legal obligation to address such questions most will be willing to do so. They are entitled invoice a reasonable charge for answering enquiries or supplying documentation. There is no upper cap for such fees. The average fee for the paperwork that you are referring to is over three hundred pounds, in some cases it is in excess of £800. The management information fee invoiced by the landlord must be accompanied by a summary of entitlements and obligations in respect of administration fees, otherwise the invoice is not strictly payable. In reality one has no choice but to pay whatever is demanded if you want to complete the sale of your home.

Leasehold Conveyancing in Chesham - Examples of Queries before buying

Is there a share of the freehold? Make sure you discover if there are any onerous restrictions in the lease. For instance it is reasonably common in Chesham leases that pets are not allowed in certain buildings in Chesham. If you love the propertyin Chesham but your dog is not allowed to move with you then you will be faced hard choice. If a Chesham lease has less than eighty years it will impact the salability of the apartment. It is worth checking with your mortgage company that they are content with remaining years on the lease. Leases with less than 80 years remaining means that you will almost definitely have to extend the lease at some point and you need to have some idea of how much this will be. Remember, in most cases you will need to own the property for two years in order to be eligible to extend the lease.