Having checked my lease I have discovered that there are only 68 years remaining on my lease in Epping. I need to get lease extension but my freeholder is missing. What options are available to me?

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 extended by the Court. You will be obliged to demonstrate that you have used your best endeavours to find the freeholder. In some cases an enquiry agent may be helpful to try and locate and prepare a report to be accepted by the court as proof that the landlord can not be located. It is advisable to get professional help from a solicitor in relation to devolving into the landlord’s absence and the application to the County Court covering Epping.

I own a leasehold house in Epping. Conveyancing and Barclays Direct mortgage are in place. A letter has just been received from someone saying they have taken over the freehold. It included a demand for arrears of ground rent dating back to 1991. The conveyancing practitioner in Epping who acted for me is not around.What should I do?

The first thing you should do is make enquiries of HMLR to be sure that the individual purporting to own the freehold is indeed the new freeholder. It is not necessary to incur the fees of a Epping conveyancing solicitor to do this as you can do this on the Land Registry website for less than a fiver. You should note that in any event, even if this is the rightful landlord, under the Limitation Act 1980 the limitation period for recovery of ground rent is six years.

I've recently bought a leasehold property in Epping. Am I liable to pay service charges for periods before my ownership?

In a situation where the service charge has already been demanded from the previous lessee and they have not paid you would not usually be personally liable for the arrears. Strange as it may seem, your landlord may still be able to take action to forfeit the lease. A critical element of leasehold conveyancing for your conveyancer to be sure 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 Epping where we have witnessed a number of leasehold sales derailed as a result of leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given conflicting advice from local Epping conveyancing firms. Please can you clarify whether the vendor of a flat can commence the lease extension process for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

As long as 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. The benefit of this is that the buyer 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 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.

We expect to complete our sale of a £425000 flat in Epping on Thursday in a week. The managing agents has quoted £396 for Certificate of Compliance, building insurance schedule and 3 years service charge statements. Is the landlord entitled to charge such fees for a flat conveyance in Epping?

Epping conveyancing on leasehold flats nine out of ten times necessitates fees being raised by landlords agents :

• Answering pre-exchange questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Epping
• 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 Epping leasehold premises is £350. For Epping 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 supply the information.

Epping Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - Sample of Queries before Purchasing

Generally speaking the outlay for major works are not included within service charges, albeit that there some managing agents in Epping require tenants to contribute towards a reserve fund created for the specific intention of establishing a fund for larger works. How long is the Lease? Is the freehold reversion owned jointly by the tenants?

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Epping