I have recently realised that I have Fifty years left on my flat in Grays. I am keen to get lease extension but my landlord is missing. What should I do?

On the basis that you meet the appropriate requirements, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply 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 demonstrate that you or your lawyers have made all reasonable attempts to locate the lessor. On the whole a specialist would be useful to try and locate and to produce a report which can be accepted by the court as proof that the freeholder can not be located. It is wise to seek advice from a property lawyer in relation to devolving into the landlord’s absence and the application to the County Court overseeing Grays.

I am tempted by the attractive purchase price for a two flats in Grays both have about forty five years left on the leases. Should I regard a short lease as a deal breaker?

A lease is a legal document that entitles you to use the premises for a prescribed time frame. As the lease gets shorter the value of the lease reduces and it becomes more costly to extend the lease. For this reason it is often a good idea to increase the term of the lease. More often than not it is difficult to sell a property with a short lease as mortgage companies may be unwilling to lend money on such properties. Lease enfranchisement can be a difficult process. We recommend you get professional help from a solicitor and surveyor with experience in this area

I've recently bought a leasehold property in Grays. Do I have any liability for service charges for periods before my ownership?

In a situation where the service charge has already been demanded from the previous owner 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 ensure 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).

What advice can you give us when it comes to finding a Grays conveyancing firm to carry out our lease extension conveyancing?

If you are instructing a solicitor for lease extension works (regardless if they are a Grays conveyancing practice) it is imperative that they be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of conveyancing. We advise that you make enquires with two or three firms including non Grays conveyancing practices before you instructing a firm. If the firm is ALEP accredited then that’s a bonus. Some following of questions might be useful:

• How many lease extensions have they carried out in Grays in the last twenty four months?
• Can they put you in touch with client in Grays who can give a testimonial?

If all goes to plan we aim to complete the disposal of our £ 125000 maisonette in Grays next week. The managing agents has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Landlord’s certificate, insurance certificate and previous years service charge statements. Is the landlord entitled to charge exorbitant fees for a flat conveyance in Grays?

Grays conveyancing on leasehold apartments usually necessitates the purchaser’s solicitor sending enquiries for the landlord to answer. Although the landlord is not legally bound to respond to such questions the majority will be content to assist. They may charge a reasonable administration fee for answering questions or supplying documentation. There is no upper cap for such fees. The average costs for the paperwork that you are referring to is £350, in some transactions it is above £800. The administration charge levied by the landlord must be sent together with a summary of entitlements and obligations in respect of administration charges, otherwise the charge is technically not due. In reality you have little choice but to pay whatever is requested of you if you want to complete the sale of your home.

Following years of dialogue we cannot agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in Grays. Can we issue an application to the Residential Property Tribunal Service?

in cases where there is a absentee freeholder or if there is disagreement about the premium for a lease extension, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 it is possible to make an application to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) to assess the price.

An example of a Lease Extension matter before the tribunal for a Grays property is Various @ Colombus Square in January 2012. the Tribunal calculated the premiums to be paid for new leases for each of the flats in Mariners Walk to be £3822 and the premium to be paid for the new lease of 2 Knights Court to be £4439. This case related to 13 flats. The remaining number of years on the lease was 76 years.

I inherited a studio flat in Grays, conveyancing formalities finalised in 2000. Can you let me have an estimated range of the fair premium for a lease extension? Similar flats in Grays with a long lease are worth £165,000. The ground rent is £55 invoiced every year. The lease comes to an end on 21st October 2076

You have 50 years left to run we estimate the price of your lease extension to range between £32,300 and £37,400 as well as costs.

The figure that we have given is a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we are not able to advice on the actual costs without more comprehensive investigations. You should not use this information in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There may be other concerns that need to be taken into account and you obviously should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. You should not move forward based on this information without first getting professional advice.