Having checked my lease I have discovered that there are only Sixty One years unexpired on my lease in Durham. I now wish to get lease extension but my landlord is missing. What options are available to me?

If you meet the appropriate requirements, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the County Court for an order to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will enable the lease to be granted an extra 90 years by the Court. You will be obliged to demonstrate that you have made all reasonable attempts to track down the freeholder. On the whole an enquiry agent should be helpful to carry out a search and prepare a report to be accepted by the court as evidence that the landlord can not be located. It is wise to seek advice from a property lawyer in relation to devolving into the landlord’s absence and the application to the County Court overseeing Durham.

I've recently bought a leasehold property in Durham. Do I have any liability for service charges relating to a period prior to 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. It is an essential part 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 busy estate agent office in Durham where we see a few flat sales derailed due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have received conflicting advice from local Durham conveyancing solicitors. Please can you shed some light as to whether the seller of a flat can commence the lease extension formalities 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 proposed purchaser need not have to sit tight for 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed prior to, or at the same time as completion of the disposal of the property.

Alternatively, it may be possible 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.

What advice can you give us when it comes to choosing a Durham conveyancing firm to carry out our lease extension conveyancing?

When appointing a conveyancer for lease extension works (regardless if they are a Durham conveyancing practice) it is most important that he or she should be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of conveyancing. We suggested that you make enquires with two or three firms including non Durham conveyancing practices prior to instructing a firm. If the firm is ALEP accredited then so much the better. Some following of questions could be helpful:

• If the firm is not ALEP accredited then why not?
• What are the costs for lease extension conveyancing?

All being well we will complete our sale of a £ 250000 flat in Durham next Friday . The management company has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Certificate of Compliance, building insurance schedule and 3 years statements of service charge. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge an administration fee for a flat conveyance in Durham?

Durham conveyancing on leasehold apartments often requires the buyer’s solicitor submitting questions for the landlord to address. Although the landlord is under no legal obligation to answer such questions most will be willing to do so. They may invoice a reasonable administration fee for answering enquiries or supplying documentation. There is no upper cap for such fees. The average fee for the paperwork that you are referring to is over three hundred pounds, in some situations it is above £800. The administration charge invoiced by the landlord must be sent together with a synopsis of rights and obligations in respect of administration charges, otherwise the invoice is technically not due. In reality one has little choice but to pay whatever is requested of you if you want to complete the sale of your home.

I am the registered owner of a leasehold flat in Durham, conveyancing formalities finalised 9 years ago. Can you shed any light on how much the price could be for a 90 year extension to my lease? Equivalent flats in Durham with an extended lease are worth £192,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £60 invoiced every year. The lease comes to an end on 21st October 2098

With only 72 years unexpired we estimate the premium for your lease extension to be between £9,500 and £11,000 plus plus your own and the landlord's "reasonable" professional fees.

The figure that we have given is a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we cannot give you the actual costs without more comprehensive due diligence. Do not use the figures in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There may be additional issues that need to be considered and you obviously want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. You should not take any other action placing reliance on this information before getting professional advice.