Planning to sign contracts shortly on a basement flat in Cotham. Conveyancing solicitors assured me that they will have a report out to me tomorrow. What should I be looking out for?

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

• You should receive a copy of the lease

Details of the parties to the lease, for example these could be the leaseholder (you), head lessor, landlord

Setting out your rights in respect of common areas in the building.For example, does the lease include a right of way over a path or staircase?

Ground rent - how much and when you need to pay, and also know whether this is subject to change

An explanation as to the provision in the lease to pay service charges - with regard to both the building, and the more general rights a leaseholder has

Responsibility for repairing the window frames

What the implications are if you breach a clause of your lease? For details of the information to be contained in your report on your leasehold property in Cotham please enquire of your lawyer in advance of your conveyancing in Cotham

I’m about to sell my basement flat in Cotham.Conveyancing is yet to be initiated but I have just had a quarterly service charge invoice – should I leave it to the buyer to sort out?

It best that you discharge the service charge 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. This will smooth the conveyancing process.

I am employed by a long established estate agent office in Cotham where we see a few leasehold sales put at risk as a result of leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have received contradictory information from local Cotham conveyancing firms. Can you shed some light as to whether the vendor of a flat can initiate the lease extension process 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. The benefit of this is that the proposed purchaser need not have to sit tight for 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 simultaneously with completion of the disposal of the property.

An alternative approach is to extend the lease informally by agreement with the landlord 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.

What advice can you give us when it comes to choosing a Cotham conveyancing firm to carry out our lease extension conveyancing?

If you are instructing a solicitor for lease extension works (regardless if they are a Cotham conveyancing practice) it is most important that he or she should be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of conveyancing. We recommend that you speak with several firms including non Cotham conveyancing practices before you instructing a firm. Where the conveyancing practice is ALEP accredited then that’s a bonus. Some following of questions might be of use:

• How experienced is the practice with lease extension legislation?

If they are not ALEP accredited then what is the reason?

Completion in due on the sale of our £275000 apartment in Cotham next week. The freeholder has quoted £420 for Certificate of Compliance, building insurance schedule and 3 years statements of service charge. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge exorbitant fees for a flat conveyance in Cotham?

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

• Answering conveyancing due diligence questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Cotham
• 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 solicitor will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for Cotham leasehold premises is £350. For Cotham 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 am the registered owner of a studio flat in Cotham, conveyancing was carried out 9 years ago. Can you please calculate a probable premium for a statutory lease extension? Equivalent flats in Cotham with a long lease are worth £233,000. The ground rent is £50 charged once a year. The lease ceases on 21st October 2093

With 73 years remaining on your lease we estimate the price of your lease extension to span between £10,500 and £12,000 as well as plus your own and the landlord's "reasonable" professional fees.

The figure 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 detailed investigations. You should not use this information in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There are no doubt other concerns that need to be considered and you obviously want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Neither should you move forward placing reliance on this information without first getting professional advice.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Cotham