There are only 72 years remaining on my lease in Crabtree. I now wish to get lease extension but my landlord is missing. What are my options?

On the basis that you meet the appropriate requirements, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can submit an application to the County Court for an order to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will enable the lease to be lengthened by the magistrate. You will be obliged to prove that you have used your best endeavours to track down the landlord. In some cases a specialist should be useful to conduct investigations and to produce a report to be used as evidence that the landlord can not be located. It is wise to seek advice from a conveyancer both on investigating the landlord’s absence and the application to the County Court covering Crabtree.

You should [be sent a copy of the lease|receive a copy of the lease]

Due to sign contracts shortly on a basement flat in Crabtree. Conveyancing solicitors inform me that they report fully tomorrow. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?

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

• Defining your rights in relation to common areas in the building.For example, does the lease permit a right of way over an accessway or hallways?
• You should be told what counts as a Nuisance in the lease
• 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
• You should have a good understanding of the insurance provisions
• Whether the landlord has obligations to ensure rights of quiet enjoyment over your property and do you know what it means in practice?
• What you can do if a neighbour breach a clause of their lease?

For details of the information to be included in your report on your leasehold property in Crabtree please ask your conveyancer in advance of your conveyancing in Crabtree

I've recently bought a leasehold house in Crabtree. Do I have any liability for service charges relating to a period prior to completion of my purchase?

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 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).

Can you provide any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Crabtree with the aim of saving time on the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Crabtree can be avoided if you appoint lawyers as soon as your agents start marketing the property and request that they start to collate the leasehold information needed by the purchasers’ lawyers.
• If you have carried out any alterations to the property would they have required Landlord’s consent? In particular have you laid down wooden flooring? Crabtree leases often stipulate that internal structural alterations or laying down wooden flooring necessitate a licence from the Landlord approving such changes. Where you dont have the consents to hand do not contact the landlord without contacting your solicitor in the first instance.
• A minority of Crabtree leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this is the case, it would be prudent to notify your estate agents to make sure that the purchasers obtain bank and professional references. Any bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are able to meet the yearly 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 purchasers or their solicitors.
• If there is a history of conflict with your freeholder or managing agents it is very important that these are settled before the property is put on the market. The buyers and their solicitors will be nervous about purchasing a flat where there is a current dispute. You may have to bite the bullet and pay any arrears of service charge or resolve the dispute prior to the buyers completing the purchase. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled prior to the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You are still duty bound to disclose particulars of the dispute to the buyers, but it is better to present the dispute as over rather than unsettled.
• If you have the benefit of shareholding in the freehold, you should ensure that you are holding the original share certificate. Obtaining a replacement share certificate is often a lengthy process and slows down many a Crabtree home move. Where a duplicate share is needed, do contact the company director and secretary or managing agents (where applicable) for this as soon as possible.

We expect to complete the sale of our £ 325000 maisonette in Crabtree on Thursday in a week. The landlords agents has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Landlord’s certificate, building insurance schedule and 3 years statements of service charge. Is the landlord entitled to charge exorbitant fees for a leasehold conveyance in Crabtree?

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

• Addressing conveyancing due diligence questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Crabtree
• Supplying insurance information
• 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 Crabtree leasehold property is £350. For Crabtree 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 obliged to provide the information.

Crabtree Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - Sample of Queries before buying

Generally speaking the cost for major works are not built into the maintenance charges, although a few managing agents in Crabtree require leaseholders to contribute towards a reserve fund created for the specific intention of building a fund for major works. Be sure to find out if there is anything that is prohibited in the lease. For instance plenty of leases prohibit pets being allowed in in a block in Crabtree. If you like the flatin Crabtree but your cat is not allowed to live with you then you have a very difficult choice. How is the lease structured?