I have recently realised that I have Fifty years unexpired on my lease in Aldborough Hatch. I now wish to get lease extension but my freeholder is missing. What options are available to me?

If you qualify, 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 lengthened by the magistrate. You will be obliged to demonstrate that you or your lawyers have used your best endeavours to locate the landlord. On the whole a specialist should be helpful to try and locate and to produce an expert document which can be used as proof that the freeholder can not be located. It is wise to seek advice from a property lawyer both on investigating the landlord’s absence and the application to the County Court overseeing Aldborough Hatch.

Estate agents have just been given the go-ahead to market my ground floor apartment in Aldborough Hatch.Conveyancing solicitors are to be appointed soon but I have just received a quarterly service charge demand – Do I pay up?

The sensible thing to do is discharge the service charge 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 managing agents 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 employed by a long established estate agent office in Aldborough Hatch where we see a few leasehold sales put at risk as a result of leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given inconsistent advice from local Aldborough Hatch conveyancing firms. Please can you clarify whether the owner of a flat can start the lease extension process 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 proposed purchaser need not have to sit tight for 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed before, or at the same time as completion of the disposal of the property.

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.

Do you have any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Aldborough Hatch from the point of view of speeding up the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Aldborough Hatch can be bypassed if you appoint lawyers the minute you market your property and request that they start to collate the leasehold information needed by the purchasers’ representatives.
• The majority landlords or Management Companies in Aldborough Hatch levy fees for supplying management packs for a leasehold property. You or your lawyers should enquire as to the fee that they propose to charge. The management information can be applied for on or before finding a buyer, thus reducing delays. The typical amount of time it takes to obtain the necessary information is three weeks. It is the most common cause of delay in leasehold conveyancing in Aldborough Hatch.
• In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s consent? Have you, for example laid down wooden flooring? Aldborough Hatch leases often stipulate that internal structural changes or installing wooden flooring require a licence from the Landlord consenting to such works. If you fail to have the paperwork in place do not communicate with the landlord without contacting your lawyer first.
• If you hold a share in a the freehold, you should make sure that you hold the original share document. Obtaining a replacement share certificate is often a lengthy process and delays many a Aldborough Hatch home move. Where a reissued share certificate is required, do contact the company director and secretary or managing agents (if relevant) for this at the earliest opportunity.
• You believe that you know the number of years left on your lease but you should verify this via your conveyancers. A purchaser's lawyer will be unlikely to recommend their client to where the remaining number of years is less than 80 years. In the circumstances it is important at an as soon as possible that you consider whether the lease term requires a lease extension. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your property on the market for sale.

Completion in due on our sale of a £ 475000 apartment in Aldborough Hatch in just under a week. The landlords agents has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Certificate of Compliance, building insurance schedule and 3 years service charge statements. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge such fees for a flat conveyance in Aldborough Hatch?

For most leasehold sales in Aldborough Hatch 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 enquiries
• Where consent is required before sale in Aldborough Hatch
• 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 Aldborough Hatch leasehold property is £350. For Aldborough Hatch 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.

Following months of negotiations we are unable to agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in Aldborough Hatch. Can we issue an application to the Residential Property Tribunal Service?

in cases where there is a absentee freeholder or if there is dispute about the premium for a lease extension, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 it is possible to make an application to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal to calculate the price.

An example of a Lease Extension case for a Aldborough Hatch residence is 49 Aldborough Road South in July 2012. The Tribunal decided that the premium payable for the grant of the new lease was £13,925 This case affected 1 flat. The unexpired term was 61.36 years.

I own a garden flat in Aldborough Hatch, conveyancing formalities finalised in 2011. Can you give me give me an indication of the likely cost of a lease extension? Similar properties in Aldborough Hatch with over 90 years remaining are worth £260,000. The ground rent is £60 levied per year. The lease terminates on 21st October 2097

With only 71 years unexpired we estimate the premium for your lease extension to be between £15,200 and £17,600 as well as costs.

The figure that we have given is a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we cannot give you the actual costs in the absence of comprehensive due diligence. You should not use this information in tribunal or court proceedings. There are no doubt additional issues that need to be considered and clearly you want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Neither should you move forward based on this information without first seeking the advice of a professional.