I have recently realised that I have 62 years unexpired on my flat in Fenstanton. I need to extend my lease but my landlord is absent. What options are available to me?

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 enable the lease to be granted an extra 90 years by the magistrate. You will be obliged to prove 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 an expert document to be accepted by the court as evidence that the freeholder can not be located. It is wise to seek advice from a solicitor both on devolving into the landlord’s absence and the vesting order request to the County Court overseeing Fenstanton.

I am tempted by the attractive purchase price for a couple of flats in Fenstanton which have in the region of forty five years left on the lease term. Do I need to be concerned?

There are plenty of short leases in Fenstanton. The lease is a right to use the property for a prescribed time frame. As the lease gets shorter the value of the lease reduces and it becomes more expensive to acquire a lease extension. This is why it is generally wise to increase the term of the lease. It is often difficult to sell a property with a short lease because mortgage lenders may be unwilling to lend money on such properties. Lease enfranchisement can be a difficult process. We recommend you get professional help from a conveyancer and surveyor with experience in this area

I am employed by a reputable estate agent office in Fenstanton where we have experienced a number of leasehold sales jeopardised as a result of leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given inconsistent advice from local Fenstanton conveyancing firms. Could you clarify whether the owner of a flat can start the lease extension process for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

Provided that the seller has owned the lease 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. 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 has to be done prior to, or at the same time as completion of the disposal of the property.

An alternative approach is to extend the lease informally by agreement with the landlord 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.

Can you provide any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Fenstanton from the perspective of expediting the sale process?

• Much of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Fenstanton can be bypassed if you instruct lawyers as soon as your agents start marketing the property and ask them to collate the leasehold documentation which will be required by the purchasers’ solicitors.
• The majority freeholders or Management Companies in Fenstanton levy fees for providing management packs for a leasehold homes. You or your lawyers should discover the fee that they propose to charge. The management pack can be applied for as soon as you have a buyer, thus reducing delays. The average time it takes to receive management information is three weeks. It is the most common cause of delay in leasehold conveyancing in Fenstanton.

A minority of Fenstanton leases require Landlord’s consent to the sale and approval of the buyers. If this applies to your lease, it would be prudent to place the estate agents on notice to make sure that the purchasers obtain financial (bank) and professional references. The bank reference should make it clear that the buyer is financially capable of paying the annual service charge and the actual amount of the service charge should be quoted in the bank’s letter. You will therefore need to provide your estate agents with the service charge figures so that they can pass this information on to the purchasers or their solicitors.

If you are supposed to have a share in the Management Company, you should ensure that you are holding the original share document. Arranging a new share certificate is often a lengthy formality and slows down many a Fenstanton conveyancing transaction. If a reissued share certificate is necessary, you should approach the company director and secretary or managing agents (if applicable) for this sooner rather than later.

You believe that you know the number of years left on your lease but it would be wise to double-check by asking your solicitors. A buyer’s lawyer will not be happy to advise their client to proceed with the purchase of a leasehold property the lease term is below 80 years. In the circumstances it is essential at an early stage that you consider whether the lease for your property needs extending. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your premises on the market for sale.

We expect to complete our sale of a £450000 garden flat in Fenstanton on Wednesday in a week. The managing agents has quoted £300 for Certificate of Compliance, building insurance schedule and previous years service charge statements. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge such fees for a leasehold conveyance in Fenstanton?

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

• Completing conveyancing due diligence enquiries
• Where consent is required before sale in Fenstanton
• Supplying insurance information
• 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 Fenstanton leasehold property is £350. For Fenstanton 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.

I own a 1 bedroom flat in Fenstanton, conveyancing formalities finalised 2004. Can you give me give me an indication of the likely cost of a lease extension? Equivalent flats in Fenstanton with an extended lease are worth £256,000. The ground rent is £50 per annum. The lease runs out on 21st October 2090

With only 69 years remaining on your lease we estimate the premium for your lease extension to be between £13,300 and £15,400 as well as costs.

The suggested premium range that we have given is a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we cannot give you the actual costs without more detailed investigations. You should not use the figures in tribunal or court proceedings. There may be other concerns that need to be taken into account and clearly you should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Please do not move forward placing reliance on this information before getting professional advice.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Fenstanton