My wife and I may need to rent out our Horfield 1st floor flat temporarily due to taking a sabbatical. We used a Horfield conveyancing firm in 2002 but they have since shut and we did not think at the time get any advice as to whether the lease permits subletting. How do we find out?

Your lease dictates the relationship between the freeholder and you the leaseholder; specifically, it will say if subletting is banned, or permitted but only subject to certain caveats. The rule is that if the lease contains no specific ban or restriction, subletting is allowed. Most leases in Horfield do not contain subletting altogether – such a clause would undoubtedly devalue the flat. In most cases there is simply a requirement that the owner notifies the freeholder, possibly sending a duplicate of the sublease.

Estate agents have just been given the go-ahead to market my 2 bed apartment in Horfield.Conveyancing lawyers have not yet been instructed but I have just had a quarterly service charge demand – what should I do?

It best that you discharge 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 until 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.

Back In 2003, I bought a leasehold flat in Horfield. Conveyancing and Chelsea Building Society mortgage are in place. A letter has just been received from someone saying they have taken over the reversionary interest in the property. Attached was a ground rent demand for rent dating back to 1995. The conveyancing solicitor in Horfield who previously acted has now retired.Any advice?

First make enquiries of HMLR to make sure that the individual claiming to own the freehold is indeed the registered owner of the freehold reversion. You do not need to incur the fees of a Horfield conveyancing firm to do this as you can do this on the Land Registry website for £3. Rest assured that in any event, even if this is the legitimate freeholder, under the Limitation Act 1980 no more than 6 years of rent can be collected.

I work for a long established estate agency in Horfield where we have experienced a number of leasehold sales jeopardised as a result of short leases. I have been given conflicting advice from local Horfield conveyancing solicitors. Please can you clarify whether the seller of a flat can start the lease extension process 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 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 wait 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 sale.

Alternatively, it may be possible 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.

What advice can you give us when it comes to choosing a Horfield conveyancing practice to carry out our lease extension conveyancing?

If you are instructing a solicitor for your lease extension (regardless if they are a Horfield conveyancing firm) it is essential that they be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of conveyancing. We advise that you talk with several firms including non Horfield conveyancing practices before you instructing a firm. If the firm is ALEP accredited then that’s a bonus. Some following of questions could be useful:

• If they are not ALEP accredited then what is the reason?

I own a 2 bed flat in Horfield, conveyancing formalities finalised in 1995. Can you work out an approximate cost of a lease extension? Comparable flats in Horfield with over 90 years remaining are worth £230,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £45 invoiced annually. The lease terminates on 21st October 2094

With only 70 years left to run we estimate the price of your lease extension to range between £10,500 and £12,000 plus costs.

The suggested premium range that we have given is a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we are not able to supply a more accurate figure in the absence of comprehensive investigations. You should not use the figures in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There may be other concerns that need to be taken into account and clearly you should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. You should not take any other action placing reliance on this information without first getting professional advice.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Horfield