I only have Fifty years left on my lease in Kemp Town. I am keen to get lease extension but my landlord is missing. What should I do?

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 mean that your lease can be granted an extra 90 years by the magistrate. However, you will be required to prove that you have used your best endeavours to find the lessor. For most situations a specialist may be helpful to try and locate and prepare an expert document to be accepted by the court as proof that the landlord can not be located. It is wise to seek advice from a conveyancer both on devolving into the landlord’s disappearance and the vesting order request to the County Court overseeing Kemp Town.

I have just started marketing my ground floor flat in Kemp Town.Conveyancing solicitors are to be appointed soon but I have just received a yearly maintenance charge invoice – Do I pay up?

It best that you pay 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. This will smooth the conveyancing process.

I am tempted by the attractive purchase price for a couple of maisonettes in Kemp Town both have about 50 years remaining on the lease term. should I be concerned?

There are no two ways about it. A leasehold apartment in Kemp Town is a wasting asset as a result of the shortening lease. The nearer the lease gets to its expiry date, the more it reduces the value of the premises. For most purchasers and lenders, leases with under eighty years become less and less attractive. 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 Kemp Town conveyancing experts who will explain the options available to you during an initial telephone conversation free of charge. A more straightforward and quicker method of extending would be to contact your landlord directly and sound him out on the prospect of extending 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.

What advice can you give us when it comes to appointing a Kemp Town conveyancing practice to deal with our lease extension?

When appointing a conveyancer for your lease extension (regardless if they are a Kemp Town conveyancing firm) it is imperative that he or she should be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of conveyancing. We recommend that you speak with two or three firms including non Kemp Town conveyancing practices prior to instructing a firm. Where the conveyancing practice 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?

What makes a Kemp Town lease defective?

There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Kemp Town. All leases are individual and drafting errors can result in certain provisions are wrong. The following missing provisions could result in a defective lease:

• Repairing obligations to or maintain elements of the premises
• Insurance obligations
• Clauses dealing with recovering service charges for expenditure on the building or common parts.
• Service charge per centages that don't add up correctly leaving a shortfall

You could encounter 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. Accord Mortgages Ltd, The Royal Bank of Scotland, and Godiva Mortgages Ltd all have very detailed requirements 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, obliging the purchaser to pull out.

I own a split level flat in Kemp Town, conveyancing was carried out in 1995. Can you let me have an estimated range of the fair premium for a lease extension? Equivalent properties in Kemp Town with over 90 years remaining are worth £180,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £60 levied per year. The lease ceases on 21st October 2102

You have 80 years left to run the likely cost is going to be between £8,600 and £9,800 plus plus your own and the landlord's "reasonable" professional fees.

The figure that we have given is a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we cannot give you a more accurate figure in the absence of comprehensive investigations. You should not use this information in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There may be other issues that need to be taken into account and you obviously want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Neither should you take any other action based on this information before getting professional advice.

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Lease Extensions in Kemp Town