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

Due to exchange soon on a studio apartment in Crowthorne. Conveyancing solicitors assured me that they are sending me a report next week. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?

Your report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in Crowthorne should include some of the following:

• Will you be prohibited or prevented from having pets in the property?
• You need to be told what constitutes a Nuisance in the lease
• Ground rent - how much and when you need to pay, and also know whether this will change in the future
• Whether your lease has a provision for a sinking fund?
• Whether the landlord has obligations to ensure rights of quiet enjoyment over your premises and do you know what it means in practice?
• Responsibility for repairing the window frames
• What you can do if a neighbour breach a clause of their lease?

For a comprehensive list of information to be included in your report on your leasehold property in Crowthorne please ask your lawyer in ahead of your conveyancing in Crowthorne

Back In 2000, I bought a leasehold house in Crowthorne. Conveyancing and Halifax mortgage are in place. I have received a letter from someone saying they have taken over the freehold. It included a ground rent demand for rent dating back to 1996. The conveyancing solicitor in Crowthorne who previously acted has long since retired.Do I pay?

First contact HMLR to be sure that the individual purporting to own the freehold is indeed the new freeholder. You do not need to incur the fees of a Crowthorne conveyancing solicitor to do this as it can be done on-line for £3. You should note that regardless, even if this is the legitimate freeholder, under the Limitation Act 1980 the limitation period for recovery of ground rent is six years.

I've recently bought a leasehold flat in Crowthorne. Am I liable to pay service charges for periods before my ownership?

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. However, 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).

I am a negotiator for a long established estate agency in Crowthorne where we have witnessed a number of flat sales jeopardised due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given contradictory information from local Crowthorne conveyancing firms. Please can you shed some light as to whether the seller of a flat can commence the lease extension formalities for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

Provided that the seller has been the owner for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. The benefit of this is that the buyer need not have to wait 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed 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.

Our conveyancer has advised that he intends to complete and exchange simultaneously on our sale of a £ 450000 apartment in Crowthorne next week. The landlords agents has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Landlord’s certificate, insurance certificate and previous years statements of service charge. Is the landlord entitled to charge such fees for a leasehold conveyance in Crowthorne?

Crowthorne conveyancing on leasehold apartments nine out of ten times results in administration charges invoiced by freeholders :

• Completing pre-contract enquiries
• Where consent is required before sale in Crowthorne
• 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 Crowthorne leasehold property is £350. For Crowthorne 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.

I own a 2 bed flat in Crowthorne, conveyancing having been completed 4 years ago. Can you let me have an estimate of the premium that my landlord can legally expect in return for granting a renewal of my lease? Comparable flats in Crowthorne with over 90 years remaining are worth £254,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £60 per annum. The lease terminates on 21st October 2097

You have 71 years remaining on your lease we estimate the premium for your lease extension to span between £10,500 and £12,000 as well as costs.

The figure above a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we are not able to provide a more accurate figure in the absence of detailed due diligence. Do not use the figures in tribunal or court proceedings. There may be additional issues that need to be considered and clearly you should 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.