Having had my offer accepted I require leasehold conveyancing in Disley. Before I get started I want to be sure as to the unexpired term of the lease.

Assuming the lease is registered - and most are in Disley - 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.

Frank (my husband) and I may need to sub-let our Disley 1st floor flat temporarily due to a new job. We instructed a Disley conveyancing practice in 2002 but they have since shut and we did not have the foresight to get any advice as to whether the lease prohibits the subletting of the flat. How do we find out?

A lease dictates relations between the landlord and you the leaseholder; in particular, it will say if subletting is banned, or permitted but only subject to certain caveats. The accepted inference is that if the lease contains no expres ban or restriction, subletting is permitted. Most leases in Disley do not contain subletting altogether – such a clause would adversely affect the market value the flat. In most cases there is simply a requirement that the owner notifies the freeholder, possibly supplying a duplicate of the tenancy agreement.

Planning to sign contracts shortly on a ground floor flat in Disley. Conveyancing lawyers have said that they report fully next week. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?

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

• Setting out your rights in respect of the communal areas in the block.For instance, does the lease include a right of way over an accessway or staircase?
• Whether your lease has a provision for a reserve fund?
• You should have a good understanding of the insurance provisions
• Repair and maintenance of the flat
• Changes to the flat (alterations and additions)
• The landlord’s rights to access the flat you be made aware that your landlord has rights of access and I know how much notice s/he must provide.
• What you can do if a neighbour breach a clause of their lease?

I am looking at a couple of maisonettes in Disley which have approximately fifty years unexpired on the leases. Will this present a problem?

There are plenty of short leases in Disley. The lease is a legal document that entitles you to use the property for a prescribed time frame. As the lease gets shorter the value of the lease deteriorate and it becomes more expensive to extend the lease. This is why it is generally wise to extend the lease term. It is often difficult to sell a property with a short lease because mortgage lenders less inclined to grant a loan on properties of this type. Lease enfranchisement can be a protracted process. We advise that you seek professional help from a solicitor and surveyor with experience in this area

I am a negotiator for a busy estate agent office in Disley where we have experienced a few leasehold sales put at risk due to short leases. I have been given contradictory information from local Disley conveyancing firms. Could you shed some light as to whether the seller of a flat can instigate the lease extension process for the buyer?

Provided that the seller has been the owner 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 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 needs to be completed before, 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.

I invested in buying a garden flat in Disley, conveyancing having been completed 6 years ago. Can you give me give me an indication of the likely cost of a lease extension? Corresponding flats in Disley with an extended lease are worth £190,000. The ground rent is £60 invoiced every year. The lease expires on 21st October 2076

With 50 years left to run we estimate the premium for your lease extension to be between £35,200 and £40,600 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 are not able to supply a more accurate figure without more detailed due diligence. You should not use this information in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There may be 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 based on this information without first getting professional advice.