There are only Fifty years unexpired on my lease in Bankside. I now wish to get lease extension but my landlord is missing. What are my options?

If 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 an order 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 made all reasonable attempts to track down the lessor. On the whole a specialist should be useful to conduct investigations and to produce a report which can be accepted by the court as proof that the landlord is indeed missing. It is wise to seek advice from a conveyancer in relation to investigating the landlord’s absence and the vesting order request to the County Court overseeing Bankside.

Planning to complete next month on a studio apartment in Bankside. Conveyancing lawyers have said that they report fully on Monday. What should I be looking out for?

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

• How long the lease is You should be advised as what happens when the lease expires, and informed of the importance of not letting the lease term falling below eighty years

Setting out your legal entitlements in respect of the communal areas in the building.By way of example, does the lease grant a right of way over a path or staircase?

Whether the lease restricts you from subletting the flat, or having a home office for business

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

The landlord’s rights to access the flat you be made aware that your landlord has rights of access and I know how much notice s/he must provide.

Whether the landlord has obligations to ensure rights of quiet enjoyment over your property and do you know what it means in practice?

The landlord’s obligations to repair and maintain the building. It is important that you know who is responsible for the repair and maintenance of every part of the building For a comprehensive list of information to be included in your report on your leasehold property in Bankside please ask your solicitor in advance of your conveyancing in Bankside

Do you have any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Bankside from the perspective of expediting the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Bankside can be reduced where you appoint lawyers as soon as you market your property and ask them to put together the leasehold documentation needed by the buyers lawyers.
• The majority freeholders or Management Companies in Bankside levy fees for providing management packs for a leasehold property. You or your lawyers should find out the actual amount of the charges. The management information sought as soon as you have 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 Bankside.

In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s consent? Have you, for example laid down wooden flooring? Bankside leases often stipulate that internal structural changes or installing wooden flooring require a licence issued by the Landlord consenting to such changes. If you dont have the consents to hand do not contact the landlord without checking with your lawyer in advance.

A minority of Bankside 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 obtain bank and professional references. The bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are able to meet the yearly 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 actual amount of the service charge so that they can pass this information on to the purchasers or their solicitors.

If you have had conflict with your landlord or managing agents it is essential that these are resolved prior to the flat being put on the market. The purchasers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a property where a dispute is unresolved. You will have to accept that you will have to discharge any arrears of service charge or resolve the dispute prior to the buyers completing the purchase. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled ahead of the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You will still have to reveal details of the dispute to the buyers, but it is clearly preferable to present the dispute as over rather than unsettled.

Our conveyancer has advised that he intends to complete and exchange simultaneously on the sale of our £275000 garden flat in Bankside on Tuesday in a week. The managing agents has quoted £360 for Landlord’s certificate, building insurance schedule and 3 years service charge statements. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge an administration fee for a leasehold conveyance in Bankside?

Bankside conveyancing on leasehold maisonettes ordinarily necessitates fees being invoiced by management companies :

• Completing pre-contract questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Bankside
• 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 solicitor will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for Bankside leasehold property is £350. For Bankside 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 obliged to provide answers.

Following years of dialogue we cannot agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in Bankside. Can we issue an application to the Residential Property Tribunal Service?

in cases where there is a absentee landlord or where there is disagreement about what the lease extension should cost, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 it is possible to make an application to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) to assess the premium.

An example of a Freehold Enfranchisement case for a Bankside property is 1-41 Royal Tower Lodge 40 Cartwright Street in April 2013. the tribunal adding the agreed value of capitalised ground rents and the reversion the price to be paid for the freehold was £1,187,000 This case was in relation to 41 flats. The unexpired term was 107 years.

In relation to leasehold conveyancing in Bankside what are the most frequent lease defects?

There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Bankside. Most leases are unique and legal mistakes in the legal wording can result in certain provisions are erroneous. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:

• Repairing obligations to or maintain elements of the property
• Insurance obligations
• Clauses dealing with recovering service charges for expenditure on the building or common parts.
• Maintenance charge proportions which don’t add up to the correct percentage

You may have difficulties when selling your property if you have a defective lease as they can affect a potential buyer’s ability to obtain a mortgage. Yorkshire Building Society, Barnsley Building Society, and Nottingham Building Society all have very detailed conveyancing instructions when it comes to what is expected in a lease. Where a lender has been advised by their lawyers that the lease does not cover certain provisions they may refuse to provide security, obliging the buyer to withdraw.