I am in need of some leasehold conveyancing in Great Linford. Before diving in I require certainty as to the unexpired term of the lease.

Assuming the lease is registered - and 99.9% are in Great Linford - then the leasehold title will always include the basic details 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.

Having checked my lease I have discovered that there are only Sixty One years remaining on my flat in Great Linford. I am keen to get lease extension but my freeholder is absent. What are my options?

If 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 for permission 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 demonstrate that you or your lawyers have used your best endeavours to track down the landlord. In some cases a specialist would be helpful to carry out a search and prepare a report to be used as evidence that the freeholder is indeed missing. It is advisable to get professional help from a conveyancer both on devolving into the landlord’s absence and the vesting order request to the County Court covering Great Linford.

I am attracted to a couple of apartments in Great Linford both have in the region of fifty years unexpired on the lease term. should I be concerned?

A lease is a legal document that entitles you to use the premises for a period of time. As a lease gets shorter the value of the lease reduces and results in it becoming more costly to acquire a lease extension. For this reason it is generally wise to extend the lease term. Sometimes it is difficulties arise selling premises with a short lease because mortgage lenders less inclined to grant a loan on such properties. Lease enfranchisement can be a protracted process. We advise that you get professional assistance from a solicitor and surveyor with experience in this arena

Completion in due on our sale of a £ 400000 apartment in Great Linford in nine days. The freeholder has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Landlord’s certificate, insurance certificate and previous years service charge statements. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge exorbitant fees for a leasehold conveyance in Great Linford?

Great Linford conveyancing on leasehold maisonettes ordinarily necessitates fees being raised by managing agents :

• Completing pre-exchange enquiries
• Where consent is required before sale in Great Linford
• 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 solicitor will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for Great Linford leasehold premises is £350. For Great Linford 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.

What makes a Great Linford lease problematic?

There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Great Linford. All leases are individual and drafting errors can sometimes mean that certain clauses are erroneous. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:

• Repairing obligations to or maintain elements of the building
• 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

You may have difficulties when selling your property if you have a defective lease primarily because it impacts on the ability to obtain a mortgage on the property. HSBC Bank, Skipton Building Society, and Bank of Ireland all have express conveyancing instructions when it comes to what is expected in a lease. If a mortgage lender believes that the lease is defective they may refuse to grant the mortgage, forcing the buyer to withdraw.

I am the registered owner of a garden flat in Great Linford, conveyancing was carried out half a dozen years ago. Can you work out an approximate cost of a lease extension? Equivalent properties in Great Linford with an extended lease are worth £251,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £60 invoiced every year. The lease comes to an end on 21st October 2082

You have 56 years unexpired we estimate the premium for your lease extension to span between £27,600 and £31,800 plus legals.

The suggested premium range that we have given is a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we are not able to provide the actual costs without more comprehensive investigations. You should not use this information in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There are no doubt other concerns that need to be taken into account and you obviously want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Please do not move forward placing reliance on this information before seeking the advice of a professional.