I have recently realised that I have 62 years unexpired on my lease in Egremont. I now wish to extend my lease but my landlord is can not be found. What are my options?

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 granted an extra 90 years by the magistrate. You will be obliged to prove that you or your lawyers have done all that could be expected to track down the lessor. In some cases a specialist should be useful to try and locate and to produce a report which can be used as evidence that the freeholder can not be located. It is wise to seek advice from a conveyancer in relation to investigating the landlord’s disappearance and the application to the County Court overseeing Egremont.

I am hoping to exchange soon on a leasehold property in Egremont. Conveyancing lawyers assured me that they report fully tomorrow. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?

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

• You should be sent a copy of the lease

The length of the lease term You should be advised as what happens when the lease expires, and informed of the importance of the 80 year mark

Details of the parties to the lease, for example these could be the leaseholder (you), head lessor, freeholder

You should have a good understanding of the insurance provisions

Repair and maintenance of the flat

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 options are open to you if a neighbour is in violation of a provision in their lease? For details of the information to be included in your report on your leasehold property in Egremont please enquire of your conveyancer in ahead of your conveyancing in Egremont

I am a negotiator for a long established estate agency in Egremont where we have experienced a few leasehold sales derailed due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given inconsistent advice from local Egremont conveyancing solicitors. Can you shed some light as to whether the owner of a flat can commence 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. The benefit of this is that the proposed purchaser can avoid having to wait 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed prior to, or simultaneously with 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 purchaser.

Completion in due on our sale of a £300000 apartment in Egremont next week. The management company has quoted £372 for Landlord’s certificate, building insurance schedule and 3 years service charge statements. Is the landlord entitled to charge exorbitant fees for a flat conveyance in Egremont?

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

• Addressing pre-exchange enquiries
• Where consent is required before sale in Egremont
• 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 Egremont leasehold premises is £350. For Egremont 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.

In relation to leasehold conveyancing in Egremont what are the most common lease problems?

Leasehold conveyancing in Egremont is not unique. All leases are unique and drafting errors can result in certain provisions are wrong. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:

• A provision to repair to or maintain elements of the property
• A duty to insure the building
• Clauses dealing with recovering service charges for expenditure on the building or common parts.
• Service charge per centages that don't add up correctly leaving a shortfall

You could have difficulties when selling your property if you have a defective lease as they can affect a potential buyer’s ability to obtain a mortgage. Santander, The Royal Bank of Scotland, and Alliance & Leicester all have express requirements when it comes to what is expected in a lease. If a mortgage lender believes that the lease is defective they may refuse to provide security, obliging the buyer to pull out.

I bought a garden flat in Egremont, conveyancing formalities finalised 2003. Can you give me give me an indication of the likely cost of a lease extension? Corresponding properties in Egremont with a long lease are worth £202,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £45 per annum. The lease comes to an end on 21st October 2094

With 73 years left to run we estimate the price of your lease extension to range between £11,400 and £13,200 plus legals.

The suggested premium range that we have given is a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we are not able to advice on a more accurate figure in the absence of comprehensive due diligence. Do not use this information in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There may be additional issues that need to be taken into account and clearly you want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Please do not move forward based on this information before getting professional advice.

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Lease Extensions in Egremont