There are only Seventy years left on my lease in Lanchester. I now want to get lease extension but my landlord is can not be found. What are my options?

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 for permission to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will mean that your lease can be extended by the magistrate. You will be obliged to prove that you or your lawyers have done all that could be expected to locate the lessor. On the whole an enquiry agent would be helpful to conduct investigations and to produce an expert document to be used as evidence that the freeholder is indeed missing. 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 Lanchester.

Expecting to sign contracts shortly on a garden flat in Lanchester. Conveyancing solicitors assured me that they are sending me a report on Monday. What should I be looking out for?

Your report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in Lanchester should include some of the following:

• You should be sent a copy of the lease

I've recently bought a leasehold house in Lanchester. Am I liable to pay service charges relating to a period prior to completion of my purchase?

In a situation where the service charge has already been demanded from the previous lessee and they have not paid you would not usually be personally liable for the arrears. Strange as it may seem, your landlord may still be able to take action to forfeit the lease. It is an essential part of leasehold conveyancing for your conveyancer to be sure to have an up to date clear service charge receipt before completion of your purchase. If you have a mortgage this is likely to be a requirement of your lender.

If you purchase part way through an accounting year you may be liable for charges not yet demanded even if they relate to a period prior to your purchase. In such circumstances your conveyancer would normally arrange for the seller to set aside some money to cover their part of the period (usually called a service charge retention).

I am a negotiator for a long established estate agent office in Lanchester where we see a few flat sales derailed as a result of leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have received contradictory information from local Lanchester conveyancing firms. Please can you shed some light as to whether the owner of a flat can commence the lease extension process for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

Provided that the seller has owned the lease for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to commence the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. The benefit of this is that the proposed purchaser 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 prior to, or simultaneously with completion of the sale.

An alternative approach is 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.

What makes a Lanchester lease problematic?

There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Lanchester. All leases is drafted differently and drafting errors can result in certain sections are missing. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:

• A provision to repair to or maintain parts of the building
• A duty to insure the building
• A provision for the recovery of money spent for the benefit of another party.
• Maintenance charge proportions which don’t add up to the correct percentage

A defective lease will likely cause problems when trying to sell a property as they can affect a potential buyer’s ability to obtain a mortgage. Nationwide Building Society, Leeds Building Society, and Barclays Direct all have express requirements when it comes to what is expected in a lease. Where a lender has been advised by their lawyers that the lease is defective they may refuse to grant the mortgage, obliging the buyer to withdraw.

I bought a 1 bedroom flat in Lanchester, conveyancing was carried out half a dozen years ago. How much will my lease extension cost? Similar properties in Lanchester with over 90 years remaining are worth £222,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £60 levied per year. The lease runs out on 21st October 2079

You have 54 years remaining on your lease we estimate the premium for your lease extension to span between £29,500 and £34,000 as well as costs.

The suggested premium range above a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we cannot give you the actual costs in the absence of detailed investigations. Do not use the figures in tribunal or court proceedings. There are no doubt other concerns that need to be taken into account and clearly you want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Neither should you take any other action placing reliance on this information before getting professional advice.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Lanchester