I have recently realised that I have Seventy years left on my lease in Hartfield. I now want to extend my lease but my freeholder is absent. 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 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 Court. You will be obliged to demonstrate that you or your lawyers have done all that could be expected to locate the freeholder. In some cases a specialist may be helpful to carry out a search and prepare an expert document to be accepted by the court as evidence that the landlord is indeed missing. It is wise to seek advice from a property lawyer in relation to proving the landlord’s disappearance and the vesting order request to the County Court overseeing Hartfield.

Estate agents have just been given the go-ahead to market my 2 bed apartment in Hartfield.Conveyancing solicitors are to be appointed soon but I have just had a quarterly maintenance charge demand – Do I pay up?

Your conveyancing lawyer is likely to suggest that you should 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 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. Having a clear account will assist your cause and will leave you no worse off financially.

I own a leasehold flat in Hartfield. Conveyancing and Coventry Building Society mortgage are in place. A letter has just been received from someone saying they have taken over the freehold. Attached was a ground rent demand for rent dating back to 1996. The conveyancing solicitor in Hartfield who acted for me is not around.Do I pay?

First make enquiries of the Land Registry to make sure that the individual purporting to own the freehold is in fact the new freeholder. There is no need to instruct a Hartfield conveyancing practitioner to do this as you can do this on the Land Registry website for a few pound. Rest assured that in any event, even if this is the legitimate freeholder, under the Limitation Act 1980 the limitation period for recovery of ground rent is six years.

I am a negotiator for a reputable estate agent office in Hartfield where we have witnessed a few flat sales put at risk as a result of leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given contradictory information from local Hartfield conveyancing solicitors. Please can you confirm whether the owner of a flat can initiate the lease extension formalities for the buyer?

Provided that the seller has owned the lease 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 buyer can avoid having to wait 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done before, or simultaneously with completion of the sale.

Alternatively, it may be possible 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 buyer.

Our conveyancer has advised that he intends to complete and exchange simultaneously on our sale of a £ 150000 apartment in Hartfield in just under a week. The freeholder has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Certificate of Compliance, building insurance schedule and previous years statements of service charge. Is the landlord entitled to charge an administration fee for a leasehold conveyance in Hartfield?

Hartfield conveyancing on leasehold maisonettes more often than not necessitates the purchaser’s lawyer sending enquiries for the landlord to address. Although the landlord is not legally bound to address these enquiries the majority will be willing to assist. They are at liberty invoice a reasonable administration fee for answering enquiries or supplying documentation. There is no upper cap for such fees. The average costs for the information that you are referring to is over three hundred pounds, in some situations it exceeds £800. The administration charge required by the landlord must be accompanied by a synopsis of rights and obligations in respect of administration fees, without which the invoice is not strictly payable. Reality however dictates that one has little option but to pay whatever is demanded if you want to sell the property.

Leasehold Conveyancing in Hartfield - A selection of Questions you should consider Prior to Purchasing

How is the lease structured? On the whole the outlay for major works tend not to be included within maintenance charges, albeit that some managing agents in Hartfield ask leasehold owners to pay into a reserve fund created for the specific intention of building a fund for larger works.