I have recently realised that I have 62 years remaining on my lease in Littleborough. I now want to get lease extension but my landlord is absent. 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 enable the lease to be granted an extra 90 years by the magistrate. However, you will be required to demonstrate that you or your lawyers have done all that could be expected to find the freeholder. In some cases a specialist should be useful to try and locate and to produce an expert document which can be accepted by the court as proof that the freeholder is indeed missing. It is wise to seek advice from a conveyancer both on investigating the landlord’s disappearance and the vesting order request to the County Court overseeing Littleborough.

I am looking at a couple of flats in Littleborough which have about fifty years left on the lease term. Should I regard a short lease as a deal breaker?

There are plenty of short leases in Littleborough. The lease is a legal document that entitles you to use the property for a period of time. As a lease shortens the marketability of the lease decreases and results in it becoming more costly to extend the lease. For this reason it is generally wise to extend the lease term. More often than not it is difficult to sell a property with a short lease because mortgage companies may be reluctant to lend money on such properties. Lease enfranchisement can be a protracted process. We recommend you get professional help from a conveyancer and surveyor with experience in this arena

I am employed by a busy estate agency in Littleborough where we see a few leasehold sales jeopardised due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given conflicting advice from local Littleborough conveyancing solicitors. Please can you clarify whether the owner of a flat can instigate the lease extension process for the buyer?

Provided that 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. This means that the buyer need not have to wait 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed before, or simultaneously with completion of the disposal of the property.

Alternatively, it may be possible 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 advice can you give us when it comes to choosing a Littleborough conveyancing practice to carry out our lease extension conveyancing?

When appointing a conveyancer for your lease extension (regardless if they are a Littleborough conveyancing practice) it is most important that they be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of work. We recommend that you make enquires with two or three firms including non Littleborough conveyancing practices before you instructing a firm. Where the conveyancing practice is ALEP accredited then so much the better. Some following of questions could be helpful:

• How experienced is the practice with lease extension legislation?
• Can they put you in touch with client in Littleborough who can give a testimonial?

All being well we will complete our sale of a £ 175000 flat in Littleborough in 10 days. The management company has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Landlord’s certificate, building insurance schedule and 3 years statements of service charge. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge exorbitant fees for a leasehold conveyance in Littleborough?

For most leasehold sales in Littleborough conveyancing will involve, questions about the management of a building inevitably needing to be answered directly by the freeholder or its agent, this includes :

• Completing pre-contract enquiries
• Where consent is required before sale in Littleborough
• Supplying insurance information
• Deeds of covenant upon sale
• Registering of the assignment of the change of lessee after a sale

Your lawyer will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for Littleborough leasehold property is £350. For Littleborough 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.

Littleborough Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - Examples of Queries Prior to buying

Does the lease contain onerous restrictions?