There are only Sixty One years unexpired on my flat in Exeter. I am keen to extend my lease but my landlord is missing. What should I do?

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 for permission 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 made all reasonable attempts to track down the landlord. For most situations a specialist may be useful to conduct investigations and to produce an expert document to be used as evidence that the landlord is indeed missing. It is wise to seek advice from a conveyancer both on investigating the landlord’s absence and the vesting order request to the County Court covering Exeter.

I’m about to sell my ground floor apartment in Exeter.Conveyancing has not commenced but I have just had a quarterly service charge demand – Do I pay up?

It best that you clear the service charge as normal because all ground rent and service charges will be apportioned on completion, so you will be reimbursed by the buyer for the period running from after the completion date to the next payment date. Most managing agents will not acknowledge the buyer unless the service charges have been paid and are up to date so it is important for both buyer and seller for the seller to show that they are up to date. Having a clear account will assist your cause and will leave you no worse off financially.

I am attracted to a two flats in Exeter which have about fifty years remaining on the lease term. should I be concerned?

There are plenty of short leases in Exeter. The lease is a right to use the property for a prescribed time frame. As the lease gets shorter the saleability of the lease reduces and it becomes more expensive to extend the lease. For this reason it is advisable to increase the term of the lease. Sometimes it is difficult to sell a property with a short lease because mortgage companies may be unwilling to lend money on such properties. Lease extension can be a difficult process. We recommend you seek professional help from a conveyancer and surveyor with experience in this arena

We expect to complete the disposal of our £ 300000 flat in Exeter in just under a week. The landlords agents has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Certificate of Compliance, building insurance schedule and previous years service charge statements. Is the landlord entitled to charge an administration fee for a leasehold conveyance in Exeter?

Exeter conveyancing on leasehold maisonettes ordinarily involves fees being raised by managing agents :

• Completing pre-exchange enquiries
• Where consent is required before sale in Exeter
• Supplying insurance information
• Deeds of covenant upon sale
• Registering of the assignment of the change of lessee after a sale

Your lawyer will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for Exeter leasehold premises is £350. For Exeter 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 obliged to provide the information.

Are there common problems that you witness in leases for Exeter properties?

There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Exeter. Most leases are individual and drafting errors can result in certain clauses are missing. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:

• Repairing obligations to or maintain parts of the property
• Insurance obligations
• A provision for the recovery of money spent for the benefit of another party.
• Maintenance charge proportions which don’t add up to the correct percentage

A defective lease will likely cause issues when trying to sell a property primarily because it impacts on the ability to obtain a mortgage on the property. Nationwide Building Society, Norwich and Peterborough Building Society, and Platform Home Loans Ltd all have express requirements when it comes to what is expected in a lease. If a mortgage lender believes that the lease is problematic they may refuse to grant the mortgage, forcing the purchaser to withdraw.

I bought a leasehold flat in Exeter, conveyancing was carried out 8 years ago. Can you let me have an estimate of the premium that my landlord can legally expect in return for granting a renewal of my lease? Corresponding properties in Exeter with over 90 years remaining are worth £266,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £60 per annum. The lease ends on 21st October 2094

With 68 years unexpired we estimate the premium for your lease extension to range between £10,500 and £12,000 plus plus your own and the landlord's "reasonable" professional fees.

The suggested premium range that we have given is a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we cannot give you a more accurate figure without more detailed due diligence. You should not use the figures in tribunal or court proceedings. There may be other issues that need to be taken into account and clearly you should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. You should not take any other action based on this information without first getting professional advice.