My fiance and I may need to rent out our Dunstable garden flat for a while due to a new job. We instructed a Dunstable conveyancing firm in 2001 but they have closed and we did not have the foresight to seek any guidance as to whether the lease allows us to sublet. How do we find out?

Your lease dictates relations between the freeholder and you the leaseholder; in particular, it will set out if subletting is not allowed, or permitted but only subject to certain caveats. The rule is that if the lease contains no expres ban or restriction, subletting is permitted. The majority of leases in Dunstable 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 sending a copy of the sublease.

Having checked my lease I have discovered that there are only 68 years unexpired on my lease in Dunstable. I am keen to get lease extension but my landlord is absent. What options are available to me?

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 mean that your lease can be lengthened by the Court. However, you will be required to prove that you or your lawyers have done all that could be expected to track down the landlord. In some cases a specialist may be useful to try and locate and to produce an expert document to be accepted by the court as proof that the freeholder is indeed missing. It is advisable to get professional help from a property lawyer both on proving the landlord’s absence and the vesting order request to the County Court overseeing Dunstable.

Due to sign contracts shortly on a leasehold property in Dunstable. Conveyancing solicitors assured me that they are sending me a report within the next couple of days. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?

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

• You should receive a copy of the lease

My wife and I purchased a leasehold flat in Dunstable. Conveyancing and Nottingham Building Society 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 1993. The conveyancing solicitor in Dunstable who acted for me is not around.What should I do?

The first thing you should do is make enquiries of HMLR to make sure that this person is in fact the registered owner of the freehold reversion. There is no need to incur the fees of a Dunstable conveyancing solicitor to do this as you can do this on the Land Registry website for less than a fiver. Rest assured that in any event, even if this is the rightful freeholder, under the Limitation Act 1980 the limitation period for recovery of ground rent is six years.

I work for a long established estate agency in Dunstable where we have witnessed a few flat sales derailed as a result of leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have received conflicting advice from local Dunstable conveyancing solicitors. Please can you shed some light as to whether the vendor of a flat can initiate 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 commence 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 at the same time as completion of the disposal of the property.

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.

Dunstable Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - Sample of Questions you should ask before Purchasing

Plenty Dunstable leasehold properties will incur a service bill for the upkeep of the building invoiced on behalf of the landlord. Where you buy the property you will have to pay this charge, normally in instalments accross the year. This can be anything from several hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for bigger purpose-built buildings. There will also be a rentcharge for you to pay annual, this is usually not a significant sum, say around £50-£100 but you should to enquire as on occasion it could be prohibitively expensive. It would be wise to investigate if the the lease contains any unreasonable restrictions in the lease. For example it is very common in Dunstable leases that pets are not allowed in certain buildings in Dunstable. If you like the apartmentin Dunstable however your cat can’t move with you then you will be presented with a difficult decision. Are any of leasehold owners in dispute over their service charge liability?

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Dunstable