I want to rent out my leasehold flat in Belmont. Conveyancing solicitor who did the purchase is retired - so can't ask her. Do I need to ask my freeholder for permission?

Notwithstanding that your previous Belmont conveyancing lawyer is not available you can check your lease to check if it allows you to sublet the premises. The rule is that if the lease is non-specific, subletting is allowed. There may be a precondition that you need to seek consent via your landlord or other appropriate person in advance of subletting. This means you not allowed to sublet in the absence of first obtaining consent. The consent is not allowed to be unreasonably turned down. 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 only have Fifty years unexpired on my flat in Belmont. I need to extend my lease but my freeholder is absent. What options are available to me?

If you qualify, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the County Court for for permission 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 or your lawyers have made all reasonable attempts to locate the freeholder. On the whole an enquiry agent would be helpful to carry out a search and prepare an expert document to be used as evidence that the freeholder is indeed missing. It is wise to seek advice from a solicitor in relation to proving the landlord’s disappearance and the vesting order request to the County Court overseeing Belmont.

I have just started marketing my 2 bed flat in Belmont.Conveyancing lawyers have not yet been instructed but I have just received a half-yearly maintenance charge demand – what should I do?

Your conveyancing lawyer is likely to suggest that you should clear the invoice 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 management companies will not acknowledge the buyer unless 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. Having a clear account will assist your cause and will leave you no worse off financially.

Back In 2002, I bought a leasehold house in Belmont. Conveyancing and Barclays Direct mortgage are in place. A letter has just been received from someone saying they have taken over the reversionary interest in the property. It included a ground rent demand for rent dating back to 1992. The conveyancing practitioner in Belmont who acted for me is not around.Do I pay?

The first thing you should do is make enquiries of HMLR to make sure that this person is indeed the registered owner of the freehold reversion. You do not need to instruct a Belmont conveyancing firm to do this as you can do this on the Land Registry website for £3. Rest assured that in any event, even if this is the rightful freeholder, under the Limitation Act 1980 the limitation period for recovery of ground rent is six years.

All being well we will complete the disposal of our £ 200000 apartment in Belmont on Friday in a week. The landlords agents has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Landlord’s certificate, building insurance schedule and 3 years service charge statements. Is the landlord entitled to charge exorbitant fees for a leasehold conveyance in Belmont?

For most leasehold sales in Belmont 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 Belmont
• Supplying insurance information
• 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 Belmont leasehold premises is £350. For Belmont 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 answers.

Following years of correspondence we simply can't agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in Belmont. Does the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal have jurisdiction to calculate the appropriate figures?

if there is a missing landlord or where there is disagreement about what the lease extension should cost, under the relevant legislation it is possible to make an application to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal to assess the sum to be paid.

An example of a Lease Extension case for a Belmont residence is 33 The Maisonettes Alberta Avenue in June 2014. the Tribunal decided that the premium payable for the grant of a new lease be the sum of £20,680 (Twenty Thousand six hundred and eighty pounds). This case related to 1 flat. The the unexpired residue of the current lease was 60.43 years.

Belmont Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - Examples of Queries before Purchasing

Many Belmont leasehold properties will incur a service bill for maintenance of the block levied by the landlord. If you acquire the apartment you will have to meet this liability, normally periodically throughout the year. This may be anything from a few hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for blocks with lifts and large communal areas. There will also be a rentcharge for you to pay annual, ordinarily this is not a large figure, say about £50-£100 but you need to check as occasionally it could be many hundreds of pounds.