My husband and I may need to let out our Bayswater basement flat for a while due to taking a sabbatical. We instructed a Bayswater conveyancing firm in 2004 but they have closed and we did not have the foresight to get any guidance as to whether the lease allows us to sublet. How do we find out?

Notwithstanding that your previous Bayswater conveyancing lawyer is not around you can review your lease to see if it allows you to sublet the property. The accepted inference is that if the deeds are non-specific, subletting is allowed. Quite often there is a prerequisite that you are obliged to obtain consent via your landlord or other appropriate person prior to subletting. This means you not allowed to sublet without first obtaining permission. Such consent is not allowed to be unreasonably refused ore delayed. If your lease does not allow you to sublet you will need to ask your landlord if they are willing to waive this restriction.

I am a negotiator for a reputable estate agent office in Bayswater where we have experienced a few leasehold sales jeopardised as a result of short leases. I have been given conflicting advice from local Bayswater conveyancing firms. Please can you confirm 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 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 has to be done before, or at the same time as completion of the disposal of the property.

An alternative approach is to agree the lease extension with the freeholder 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.

Can you offer any advice when it comes to finding a Bayswater conveyancing practice to carry out our lease extension conveyancing?

If you are instructing a solicitor for your lease extension (regardless if they are a Bayswater conveyancing firm) it is most important that he or she should be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of work. We recommend that you speak with several firms including non Bayswater conveyancing practices prior to instructing a firm. Where the conveyancing practice is ALEP accredited then that’s a bonus. Some following of questions might be of use:

• Can they put you in touch with client in Bayswater who can give a testimonial?
• What are the legal fees for lease extension work?

Do you have any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Bayswater with the intention of speeding up the sale process?

• Much of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Bayswater can be bypassed if you appoint lawyers as soon as you market your property and request that they start to put together the leasehold information which will be required by the purchasers’ solicitors.
• If you have carried out any alterations to the property would they have required Landlord’s approval? Have you, for example installed wooden flooring? Most leases in Bayswater state that internal structural changes or laying down wooden flooring calls for a licence from the Landlord consenting to such changes. If you fail to have the paperwork to hand do not contact the landlord without contacting your lawyer before hand.
• A minority of Bayswater leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this applies to your lease, it would be prudent to notify your estate agents to make sure that the purchasers put in hand bank and professional references. The bank reference should make it clear that the buyer is 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 service charge figures so that they can pass this information on to the purchasers or their lawyers.
• If you have had conflict with your freeholder or managing agents it is very important that these are settled prior to the flat being marketed. The purchasers and their solicitors will be nervous about purchasing a flat where a dispute is unresolved. You will have to accept that you will have to discharge any arrears of service charge or settle the dispute prior to the buyers completing the purchase. 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 buyers, but it is clearly preferable to reveal the dispute as historic as opposed to unresolved.
• You believe that you know the number of years left on your lease but you should verify this via your conveyancers. A buyer’s lawyer will not be happy to advise their client to to exchange contracts if the remaining number of years is below 80 years. It is therefore important 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 property on the market for sale.

All being well we will complete our sale of a £ 250000 garden flat in Bayswater next week. The management company has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Landlord’s certificate, building insurance schedule and previous years statements of service charge. Is the landlord entitled to charge such fees for a leasehold conveyance in Bayswater?

Bayswater conveyancing on leasehold maisonettes normally necessitates the purchaser’s lawyer submitting enquiries for the landlord to answer. Although the landlord is not legally bound to answer such questions the majority will be content to assist. They may charge a reasonable charge for responding to enquiries or supplying documentation. There is no upper cap for such fees. The average costs for the paperwork that you are referring to is £350, in some situations it is above £800. The administration charge levied by the landlord must be sent together with a synopsis of rights and obligations in respect of administration fees, otherwise the charge is not strictly payable. Reality however dictates that one has no option but to pay whatever is demanded should you wish to complete the sale of your home.

We have reached the end of our tether in trying to purchase the freehold in Bayswater. Can the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal adjudicate on premiums?

if there is a absentee freeholder or where there is dispute about the premium for a lease extension, under the relevant legislation you can apply to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal to calculate the price payable.

An example of a Lease Extension decision for a Bayswater flat is 93 Oakwood Court in June 2010. the LVT determined that the premium to be paid for the new lease was £492,083, This case related to 1 flat. The unexpired term was 37.79 years.

I purchased a basement flat in Bayswater, conveyancing formalities finalised in 2010. Can you work out an approximate cost of a lease extension? Corresponding properties in Bayswater with over 90 years remaining are worth £189,000. The ground rent is £50 invoiced annually. The lease ends on 21st October 2087

With 61 years unexpired we estimate the premium for your lease extension to span between £20,000 and £23,000 as well as plus your own and the landlord's "reasonable" professional fees.

The suggested premium range that we have given is a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we cannot give you the actual costs without more detailed due diligence. You should not use this information in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There are no doubt other concerns that need to be taken into account and you obviously should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Neither should you take any other action based on this information before getting professional advice.