Having checked my lease I have discovered that there are only Fifty years remaining on my lease in Cuffley. I need to extend my lease but my freeholder is absent. What options are available to me?

On the basis that you qualify, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can submit an application to the County Court for for permission to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will mean that your lease can be granted an extra 90 years by the magistrate. You will be obliged to demonstrate that you or your lawyers have done all that could be expected to track down the lessor. On the whole an enquiry agent should be helpful to carry out a search and to produce an expert document to be accepted by the court as proof that the freeholder can not be located. It is advisable to get professional help from a property lawyer both on devolving into the landlord’s absence and the application to the County Court overseeing Cuffley.

I am attracted to a two maisonettes in Cuffley both have approximately fifty years remaining on the leases. Will this present a problem?

There are plenty of short leases in Cuffley. The lease is a right to use the property for a prescribed time frame. As the lease shortens the value of the lease decreases and it becomes more costly to acquire a lease extension. This is why it is often a good idea to extend the lease term. More often than not it is difficulties arise selling premises with a short lease as mortgage companies less inclined to grant a loan on such properties. Lease extension can be a protracted process. We recommend you seek professional assistance from a conveyancer and surveyor with experience in this arena

I am a negotiator for a busy estate agent office in Cuffley where we see a number of leasehold sales derailed due to short leases. I have received conflicting advice from local Cuffley conveyancing firms. Could you clarify whether the owner of a flat can commence 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 start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. This means that the buyer can avoid having to wait 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done before, or simultaneously with completion of the sale.

Alternatively, it may be possible 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.

Do you have any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Cuffley from the perspective of expediting the sale process?

• Much of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Cuffley can be reduced if you instruct lawyers as soon as you market your property and ask them to put together the leasehold documentation needed by the purchasers’ solicitors.
• The majority landlords or managing agents in Cuffley levy fees for supplying management packs for a leasehold premises. You or your lawyers should enquire as to the fee that they propose to charge. The management information sought as soon as you have a buyer, thus accelerating the process. The average time it takes to obtain the necessary information is three weeks. It is the most usual reason for delay in leasehold conveyancing in Cuffley.

If you have carried out any alterations to the property would they have required Landlord’s approval? In particular have you installed wooden flooring? Most leases in Cuffley state that internal structural alterations or installing wooden flooring require a licence issued by the Landlord approving such alterations. Where you dont have the paperwork in place you should not contact the landlord without checking with your solicitor in advance.

A minority of Cuffley leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this applies to your lease, you should place the estate agents on notice to make sure that the purchasers obtain bank and professional references. The bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are financially capable of paying 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 you are supposed to have a share in the freehold, you should make sure that you are holding the original share document. Organising a duplicate share certificate is often a lengthy process and slows down many a Cuffley home move. If a reissued share certificate is required, you should approach the company officers or managing agents (if relevant) for this as soon as possible.

All being well we will complete our sale of a £500000 maisonette in Cuffley next week. The landlords agents has quoted £324 for Certificate of Compliance, insurance certificate and previous years statements of service charge. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge an administration fee for a leasehold conveyance in Cuffley?

For the majority of leasehold sales in Cuffley conveyancing will involve, queries regarding the management of a building inevitably needing to be answered directly by the freeholder or its agent, this includes :

• Completing pre-contract enquiries
• Where consent is required before sale in Cuffley
• 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 Cuffley leasehold premises is £350. For Cuffley 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 supply answers.

I invested in buying a ground floor flat in Cuffley, conveyancing having been completed in 2005. How much will my lease extension cost? Equivalent properties in Cuffley with over 90 years remaining are worth £255,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £45 levied per year. The lease ends on 21st October 2077

With only 52 years remaining on your lease we estimate the premium for your lease extension to range between £37,100 and £42,800 as well as plus your own and the landlord's "reasonable" professional fees.

The suggested premium range that we have given is a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we cannot give you the actual costs without more detailed investigations. Do not use the figures in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There may be additional concerns that need to be considered and clearly you should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. You should not move forward based on this information before seeking the advice of a professional.

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Lease Extensions in Cuffley