Helen (my wife) and I may need to rent out our Huntingdon 1st floor flat temporarily due to taking a sabbatical. We used a Huntingdon conveyancing practice in 2001 but they have since shut and we did not have the foresight to seek any guidance as to whether the lease prohibits the subletting of the flat. How do we find out?

Even though your last Huntingdon conveyancing solicitor is no longer available you can review your lease to see if you are permitted to let out the premises. The accepted inference is that if the deeds are non-specific, subletting is permitted. Quite often there is a prerequisite that you need to seek permission from your landlord or other appropriate person before subletting. The net result is that you cannot sublet without prior permission. The consent must not not be unreasonably turned down. If your lease prohibits you from letting out the property you should ask your landlord if they are willing to waive this restriction.

Having checked my lease I have discovered that there are only Seventy years remaining on my flat in Huntingdon. I need to extend my lease but my freeholder is absent. What options are available to me?

On the basis that you qualify, 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 enable the lease to be extended by the Court. You will be obliged to demonstrate that you have used your best endeavours to locate the landlord. In some cases an enquiry agent should be helpful to conduct investigations and to produce a report which can be accepted by the court as evidence that the freeholder can not be located. It is wise to seek advice from a property lawyer both on proving the landlord’s absence and the application to the County Court overseeing Huntingdon.

Back In 2002, I bought a leasehold house in Huntingdon. Conveyancing and Clydesdale mortgage are in place. A letter has just been received from someone saying they have taken over the freehold. It included a demand for arrears of ground rent dating back to 1992. The conveyancing practitioner in Huntingdon who acted for me is not around.Do I pay?

First make enquiries of the Land Registry to be sure that this person is indeed the new freeholder. There is no need to incur the fees of a Huntingdon conveyancing solicitor to do this as you can do this on the Land Registry website for less than a fiver. You should note that regardless, even if this is the legitimate landlord, under the Limitation Act 1980 the limitation period for recovery of ground rent is six years.

What advice can you give us when it comes to appointing a Huntingdon conveyancing firm to deal with our lease extension?

When appointing a solicitor for your lease extension (regardless if they are a Huntingdon conveyancing firm) it is imperative that he or she should be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of work. We suggested that you make enquires with two or three firms including non Huntingdon conveyancing practices prior to instructing a firm. Where the conveyancing practice is ALEP accredited then so much the better. Some following of questions might be useful:

• How experienced is the firm with lease extension legislation?
• If the firm is not ALEP accredited then why not?

All being well we will complete our sale of a £ 150000 apartment in Huntingdon on Friday in a week. The freeholder has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Certificate of Compliance, insurance certificate and previous years service charge statements. Is the landlord entitled to charge an administration fee for a flat conveyance in Huntingdon?

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

• Addressing conveyancing due diligence questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Huntingdon
• 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 Huntingdon leasehold premises is £350. For Huntingdon 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 provide the information.

Huntingdon Leasehold Conveyancing - A selection of Queries before buying

Where a Huntingdon lease has less than 80 years it will affect the marketability of the flat. It is worth checking with your bank that they are content with residual term of the lease. A short lease means that you will probably need a lease extension at some point and you need to have some idea of what this will be. Remember, in most cases you will be be obliged to have been the owner of the premises for two years in order to be legally able to extend the lease. It would be prudent to investigate if the the lease includes any adverse restrictions in the lease. By way of example some leases prohibit pets being permitted in certain buildings in Huntingdon. If you love the flatin Huntingdon but your cat is not allowed to move with you then you will be presented with a difficult decision.