Having checked my lease I have discovered that there are only 72 years left on my lease in Dunmow. I need to get lease extension but my freeholder is can not be found. What are my options?

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 an order to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will mean that your lease can be granted an extra 90 years by the Court. You will be obliged to prove that you or your lawyers have used your best endeavours to find the lessor. In some cases an enquiry agent may be useful to conduct investigations and to produce a report to be used as proof that the landlord is indeed missing. It is wise to seek advice from a conveyancer both on devolving into the landlord’s absence and the application to the County Court covering Dunmow.

I am hoping to put an offer on a small detached house that appears to tick a lot of boxes, at a great figure which is making it all the more appealing. I have since discovered that it's a leasehold rather than freehold. I would have thought that there are particular concerns buying a house with a leasehold title in Dunmow. Conveyancing solicitors have are soon to be appointed. Will they explain the issues?

Most houses in Dunmow are freehold and not leasehold. In this scenario it’s worth having a local solicitor who is familiar with the area can assist with the conveyancing process. it is apparent that you are buying in Dunmow in which case you should be looking for a Dunmow conveyancing solicitor and be sure that they are used to advising on leasehold houses. First you will need to check the number of years remaining. Being a lessee you will not be entirely free to do whatever you want with the house. The lease comes with conditions such as obtaining the landlord’sconsent to conduct changes to the property. You may also be required to pay a contribution towards the upkeep of the communal areas where the house is located on an estate. Your solicitor should advise you fully on all the issues.

I am a negotiator for a long established estate agent office in Dunmow where we have witnessed a few flat sales jeopardised due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given contradictory information from local Dunmow conveyancing firms. Could you shed some light as to whether the owner of a flat can start the lease extension formalities for the buyer?

As long as 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. The benefit of this is that the buyer need not have to wait 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done prior to, or simultaneously with completion of the sale.

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 purchaser.

Do you have any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Dunmow from the perspective of expediting the sale process?

• Much of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Dunmow can be avoided where you instruct lawyers as soon as your agents start advertising the property and request that they start to put together the leasehold information needed by the buyers representatives.
• The majority landlords or managing agents in Dunmow charge for providing management packs for a leasehold premises. You or your lawyers should enquire as to the fee that they propose to charge. The management information can be applied for as soon as you have a buyer, thus accelerating the process. The typical amount of time it takes to receive management information is three weeks. It is the most common cause of delay in leasehold conveyancing in Dunmow.
• A minority of Dunmow leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this applies to your lease, it would be prudent to notify your estate agents to make sure that the purchasers put in hand financial (bank) and professional references. Any bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are able to meet the annual 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 buyers or their lawyers.
• If there is a history of any disputes with your landlord or managing agents it is essential that these are resolved before the property is put on the market. The buyers and their solicitors will be concerned about purchasing a flat where there is an ongoing dispute. You may need to swallow your pride and pay any arrears of service charge or resolve the dispute prior to completion of the sale. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled ahead of the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You are still duty bound to disclose details of the dispute to the purchasers, but it is better to present the dispute as historic rather than unsettled.
• If you have the benefit of shareholding in the Management Company, you should make sure that you hold the original share certificate. Obtaining a new share certificate can be a lengthy formality and frustrates many a Dunmow conveyancing deal. Where a duplicate share is required, do contact the company officers or managing agents (where relevant) for this sooner rather than later.

If all goes to plan we aim to complete our sale of a £ 450000 garden flat in Dunmow in six days. The managing agents has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Certificate of Compliance, insurance certificate and previous years service charge statements. Is the landlord entitled to charge such fees for a leasehold conveyance in Dunmow?

For most leasehold sales in Dunmow 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 enquiries
• Where consent is required before sale in Dunmow
• 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 conveyancer will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for Dunmow leasehold property is £350. For Dunmow 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 purchased a ground floor flat in Dunmow, conveyancing formalities finalised half a dozen years ago. Can you work out an approximate cost of a lease extension? Comparable flats in Dunmow with an extended lease are worth £269,000. The ground rent is £45 per annum. The lease ends on 21st October 2081

You have 55 years left to run the likely cost is going to span between £28,500 and £33,000 as well as legals.

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 comprehensive investigations. You should not use the figures in tribunal or court proceedings. There may be other concerns that need to be considered and clearly you should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Neither should you take any other action placing reliance on this information before getting professional advice.