I am in need of some leasehold conveyancing in Eye. Before I get started I require certainty as to the remaining lease term.

If the lease is recorded at the land registry - and most are in Eye - then the leasehold title will always include the short particulars of the lease, namely the date; the term; and the original parties. From a conveyancing perspective such details then enable any prospective buyer and lender to confirm that any lease they are looking at is the one relevant to that title.For any other purpose, such as confirming how long the term was granted for and calculating what is left, then the register should be sufficient on it's own.

I have just appointed agents to market my ground floor apartment in Eye.Conveyancing has not commenced but I have just received a yearly maintenance charge demand – should I leave it to the buyer to sort out?

The sensible thing to do is pay the invoice 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 management companies 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. This will smooth the conveyancing process.

I am looking at a couple of apartments in Eye both have in the region of fifty years left on the lease term. Do I need to be concerned?

There are no two ways about it. A leasehold apartment in Eye is a deteriorating asset as a result of the reducing lease term. The nearer the lease gets to its expiry date, the more it adversely affects the value of the property. The majority of purchasers and mortgage companies, leases with less than eighty years become less and less marketable. On a more upbeat note, leaseholders can extend their leases by serving a Section 42 Notice. One stipulation is that they must have owned the premises for two years (unlike a Section 13 notice for purchasing the freehold, when leaseholders can participate from day one of ownership). When successful, they will have the right to an extension of 90 years to the current term and ground rent is effectively reduced to zero. Before moving forward with a purchase of premises with a short lease term remaining you should talk to a solicitor specialising in lease extensions and leasehold enfranchisement. We are are happy to put you in touch with Eye conveyancing experts who will explain the options available to you during an initial telephone conversation free of charge. More often than not it is possible to negotiate informally with the freeholder to extend the lease They may agree to a smaller lump sum and an increase in the ground rent, but to shorter extension terms in return. You need to ensure that the agreed terms represent good long-term value compared with the standard benefits of the Section 42 Notice and that onerous clauses are not inserted into any redrafting of the lease.

I work for a busy estate agency in Eye where we see a number of leasehold sales derailed as a result of leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given contradictory information from local Eye conveyancing firms. Please can you shed some light as to whether the vendor of a flat can start 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 start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. This means 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 before, or at the same time as completion of the disposal of the property.

An alternative approach is 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.

Do you have any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Eye with the aim of speeding up the sale process?

• Much of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Eye can be bypassed if you instruct lawyers the minute you market your property and request that they start to put together the leasehold documentation needed by the purchasers’ conveyancers.
• In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s permission? Have you, for example installed wooden flooring? Eye leases often stipulate that internal structural alterations or addition of wooden flooring necessitate a licence issued by the Landlord approving such changes. Should you dont have the consents to hand you should not communicate with the landlord without contacting your conveyancer in the first instance.

I bought a 1st floor flat in Eye, conveyancing was carried out in 2001. How much will my lease extension cost? Equivalent flats in Eye with an extended lease are worth £236,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £45 charged once a year. The lease finishes on 21st October 2087

You have 62 years unexpired the likely cost is going to span between £21,900 and £25,200 plus plus your own and the landlord's "reasonable" professional fees.

The figure above a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we cannot give you a more accurate figure in the absence of detailed investigations. Do not use the figures in tribunal or court proceedings. There may be other concerns that need to be taken into account and you obviously should 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 Eye