Having had my offer accepted I require leasehold conveyancing in Alperton. Before I set the wheels in motion I want to be sure as to the unexpired term of the lease.

Assuming the lease is registered - and 99.9% are in Alperton - then the leasehold title will always include the short particulars 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.

There are only Sixty One years unexpired on my lease in Alperton. I need to extend my lease but my freeholder is can not be found. What options are available to me?

On the basis that you qualify, 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 enable the lease to be lengthened by the Court. However, you will be required to prove that you have done all that could be expected to track down the lessor. On the whole an enquiry agent may be helpful to conduct investigations and prepare a report which can be accepted by the court as proof that the landlord is indeed missing. It is advisable to get professional help from a conveyancer in relation to investigating the landlord’s absence and the application to the County Court overseeing Alperton.

I am attracted to a two flats in Alperton both have approximately 50 years remaining on the lease term. Do I need to be concerned?

A lease is a legal document that entitles you to use the premises for a prescribed time frame. As the lease shortens the value of the lease deteriorate and it becomes more expensive to acquire a lease extension. This is why it is often a good idea to extend the lease term. Sometimes it is difficult to sell a property with a short lease as mortgage companies may be unwilling to lend money on such properties. Lease extension can be a protracted process. We advise that you get professional assistance from a conveyancer and surveyor with experience in this field

I work for a long established estate agent office in Alperton where we have witnessed a number of flat sales jeopardised due to short leases. I have received contradictory information from local Alperton conveyancing solicitors. Could you shed some light as to whether the owner of a flat can start the lease extension process for the buyer?

As long as the seller has been the owner for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. This means that the buyer 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 prior to, or at the same time as 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 purchaser.

We expect to complete the disposal of our £275000 apartment in Alperton on Wednesday in a week. The landlords agents has quoted £336 for Certificate of Compliance, insurance certificate and previous years service charge statements. Is the landlord entitled to charge such fees for a leasehold conveyance in Alperton?

For most leasehold sales in Alperton 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 questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Alperton
• Copies of the building insurance and schedule
• 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 Alperton leasehold property is £350. For Alperton 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 cannot agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in Alperton. Does the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal have jurisdiction to calculate the appropriate figures?

in cases where there is a missing freeholder or where there is disagreement about the premium for a lease extension, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) to assess the amount due.

An example of a Lease Extension matter before the tribunal for a Alperton property is 99 Connell Crescent in May 2013. the Tribunal held that the relevant sum for the purposes of the lease extension should be £72,566 to be paid by the leaseholder This case related to 1 flat. The remaining number of years on the lease was 28.42 years.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Alperton