I am in need of some leasehold conveyancing in Ingatestone. Before I get started I would like to find out the number of years remaining on the lease.

If the lease is recorded at the land registry - and most are in Ingatestone - 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.

I have recently realised that I have Seventy years remaining on my flat in Ingatestone. I need 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 prove that you have done all that could be expected to track down the freeholder. For most situations an enquiry agent should be useful to conduct investigations and to produce a report to be accepted by the court as evidence that the landlord can not be located. It is wise to seek advice from a property lawyer in relation to proving the landlord’s absence and the application to the County Court overseeing Ingatestone.

I am looking at a couple of apartments in Ingatestone which have in the region of fifty years remaining on the leases. should I be concerned?

There is no doubt about it. A leasehold apartment in Ingatestone is a deteriorating asset as a result of the shortening lease. The closer the lease gets to zero years unexpired, the more it reduces the marketability of the premises. For most buyers and mortgage companies, leases with under 75 years become less and less marketable. On a more positive note, leaseholders can extend their leases by serving a Section 42 Notice. One stipulation is that they must have owned the premises for two years (unlike a Section 13 notice for purchasing the freehold, when leaseholders can participate from day one of ownership). When successful, they will have the right to an extension of 90 years to the current term and ground rent is effectively reduced to zero. Before moving forward with a purchase of a residence with a short lease term remaining you should talk to a solicitor specialising in lease extensions and leasehold enfranchisement. We are are happy to put you in touch with Ingatestone conveyancing experts who will explain the options available to you during an initial telephone conversation free of charge. More often than not it is possible to negotiate informally with the freeholder to extend the lease They may agree to a smaller lump sum and an increase in the ground rent, but to shorter extension terms in return. You need to ensure that the agreed terms represent good long-term value compared with the standard benefits of the Section 42 Notice and that onerous clauses are not inserted into any redrafting of the lease.

I am a negotiator for a busy estate agent office in Ingatestone where we have witnessed a few leasehold sales jeopardised as a result of leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have received contradictory information from local Ingatestone conveyancing firms. Please can you shed some light as to whether the vendor of a flat can commence the lease extension formalities for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

As long as the seller has owned the lease 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. The benefit of this is that the buyer need not have 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 disposal of the property.

An alternative approach is 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 buyer.

Are there frequently found defects that you witness in leases for Ingatestone properties?

Leasehold conveyancing in Ingatestone is not unique. All leases is drafted differently and legal mistakes in the legal wording can sometimes mean that certain sections are not included. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:

• Repairing obligations to or maintain parts of the premises
• A duty to insure the building
• Clauses dealing with recovering service charges for expenditure on the building or common parts.
• Maintenance charge proportions which don’t add up to the correct percentage

A defective lease can cause problems when trying to sell a property as they can affect a potential buyer’s ability to obtain a mortgage. Accord Mortgages Ltd, Barnsley Building Society, and TSB all have express requirements when it comes to what is expected in a lease. If a mortgage lender believes that the lease does not cover certain provisions they may refuse to grant the mortgage, forcing the buyer to withdraw.

I am the registered owner of a garden flat in Ingatestone, conveyancing was carried out in 1997. Can you let me have an estimated range of the fair premium for a lease extension? Similar flats in Ingatestone with a long lease are worth £206,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £65 charged once a year. The lease terminates on 21st October 2101

With only 75 years unexpired we estimate the price of your lease extension to span between £11,400 and £13,200 as well as professional fees.

The figure that we have given is a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we cannot give you the actual costs without more comprehensive due diligence. You should not use the figures in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There may be additional issues that need to be considered and clearly you want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Please do not move forward based on this information before seeking the advice of a professional.