I wish to sublet my leasehold flat in Balham. Conveyancing solicitor who did the purchase is retired - so can't ask her. Do I need to ask my freeholder for their consent?

Your lease governs the relationship between the freeholder and you the leaseholder; in particular, it will set out if subletting is not allowed, or permitted but only subject to certain conditions. The rule is that if the lease contains no expres ban or restriction, subletting is permitted. Most leases in Balham do not prevent strict prohibition on subletting – such a provision would adversely affect the market value the flat. Instead, there is usually a basic requirement that the owner notifies the freeholder, possibly sending a duplicate of the tenancy agreement.

Having checked my lease I have discovered that there are only 68 years left on my lease in Balham. I now want to extend my lease but my landlord is missing. What are my options?

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 mean that your lease can be granted an extra 90 years by the magistrate. You will be obliged to demonstrate that you have used your best endeavours to track down the freeholder. On the whole a specialist should be useful to conduct investigations and prepare a report to be used as evidence that the freeholder can not be located. It is advisable to get professional help from a conveyancer both on investigating the landlord’s absence and the vesting order request to the County Court overseeing Balham.

Looking forward to complete next month on a leasehold property in Balham. Conveyancing lawyers assured me that they report fully within the next couple of days. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?

The report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in Balham should include some of the following:

• You should be sent a copy of the lease

You should be told what counts as a Nuisance in the lease

Ground rent - how much and when you need to pay, and also know whether this will change in the future

An explanation as to the provision in the lease to pay service charges - with regard to both the building, and the more general rights a leaseholder has

Changes to the flat (alterations and additions)

I don't know whether the lease allows me to alter or improve anything in the flat - you should know whether it applies to all alterations or just structural alteration, and whether consent is required

What you can do if a neighbour is in violation of a provision in their lease? For a comprehensive list of information to be included in your report on your leasehold property in Balham please ask your conveyancer in ahead of your conveyancing in Balham

Do you have any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Balham from the point of view of saving time on the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Balham can be avoided if you get in touch lawyers as soon as your agents start marketing the property and ask them to put together the leasehold documentation needed by the purchasers’ lawyers.
• In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s permission? In particular have you installed wooden flooring? Most leases in Balham state that internal structural alterations or addition of wooden flooring necessitate a licence from the Landlord approving such changes. Should you dont have the approvals to hand you should not communicate with the landlord without checking with your conveyancer before hand.

A minority of Balham leases require Landlord’s consent to the sale and approval of the buyers. If this applies to your lease, you should notify your estate agents to make sure that the purchasers put in hand financial (bank) and professional references. Any bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are able to meet the annual service charge and the actual amount of the service charge should be quoted in the bank’s letter. You will therefore need to provide your estate agents with the service charge figures so that they can pass this information on to the buyers or their lawyers.

If you have had any disputes with your landlord or managing agents it is very important that these are resolved before the property is marketed. The buyers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a property where there is a current dispute. You may have to bite the bullet and discharge any arrears of service charge or resolve the dispute prior to completion of the sale. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled prior to the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You are still duty bound to disclose details of the dispute to the purchasers, but it is better to present the dispute as over as opposed to ongoing.

You believe that you know the number of years left on your lease but you should double-check by asking your solicitors. A buyer’s conveyancer will be unlikely to recommend their client to proceed with the purchase of a leasehold property the remaining number of years is less than 80 years. In the circumstances it is essential at an early stage that you identify whether the lease term requires a lease extension. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your home on the market for sale.

Completion in due on the sale of our £150000 garden flat in Balham on Monday in a week. The landlords agents has quoted £312 for Certificate of Compliance, building insurance schedule and 3 years statements of service charge. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge an administration fee for a leasehold conveyance in Balham?

For most leasehold sales in Balham 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 pre-exchange enquiries
• Where consent is required before sale in Balham
• 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 lawyer will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for Balham leasehold property is £350. For Balham 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.

Having spent months of dialogue we are unable to agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in Balham. Does the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal have jurisdiction to calculate the appropriate figures?

Most certainly. We are happy to put you in touch with a Balham conveyancing firm who can help.

An example of a Lease Extension decision for a Balham flat is First Floor Flat 152a Ramsden Road in June 2009. The net result of the tribunals calculation produced a premium payable of £23,975. This case affected 1 flat. The the unexpired residue of the current lease was 56.67 years.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Balham