I only have Sixty One years unexpired on my lease in Belvedere. I need to extend my lease but my landlord is missing. What should I do?

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 enable the lease to be extended by the Court. However, you will be required to demonstrate that you or your lawyers have used your best endeavours to track down the landlord. On the whole a specialist would be helpful to carry out a search and to produce an expert document which can be accepted by the court as proof that the freeholder can not be located. It is advisable to get professional help from a property lawyer both on investigating the landlord’s disappearance and the vesting order request to the County Court overseeing Belvedere.

I today plan to offer on a house that appears to be perfect, at a reasonable figure which is making it more attractive. I have subsequently been informed that it's a leasehold as opposed to freehold. I am assuming that there are particular concerns buying a leasehold house in Belvedere. Conveyancing advisers have are soon to be instructed. Will they explain the issues?

The majority of houses in Belvedere are freehold rather than leasehold. This is one of the situations where having a local solicitor who is familiar with the area can assist with the conveyancing process. It is clear that you are buying in Belvedere so you should seriously consider shopping around for a Belvedere conveyancing solicitor and be sure that they have experience in transacting on leasehold houses. As a matter of priority you will need to check the unexpired lease term. Being a tenant you will not be at liberty to do whatever you want to the property. The lease will likely included provisions for example obtaining the landlord’sconsent to conduct alterations. You may also be required to pay a contribution towards the maintenance of the communal areas where the house is located on an estate. Your solicitor should advise you fully on all the issues.

My wife and I purchased a leasehold house in Belvedere. Conveyancing and Leeds Building Society mortgage are in place. A letter has just been received from someone claiming to own the freehold. It included a ground rent demand for rent dating back to 1993. The conveyancing practitioner in Belvedere who previously acted has long since retired.Do I pay?

The first thing you should do is make enquiries of the Land Registry to make sure that the individual claiming to own the freehold is in fact the new freeholder. You do not need to instruct a Belvedere conveyancing practitioner to do this as you can do this on the Land Registry website for a few pound. You should note 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.

I work for a long established estate agent office in Belvedere where we have experienced a number of flat sales derailed as a result of leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given inconsistent advice from local Belvedere conveyancing firms. Can you confirm whether the vendor of a flat can commence 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. The benefit of this is that the proposed purchaser can avoid having to sit tight for 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done before, or simultaneously with completion of the disposal of the property.

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 buyer.

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

• A significant proportion of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Belvedere can be avoided if you appoint lawyers the minute your agents start advertising the property and request that they start to collate the leasehold information needed by the buyers lawyers.
• The majority freeholders or managing agents in Belvedere levy fees for supplying management packs for a leasehold property. You or your lawyers should enquire as to the actual amount of the charges. The management information sought as soon as you have a buyer, thus reducing delays. The average time it takes to obtain the necessary information is three weeks. It is the most common reason for delay in leasehold conveyancing in Belvedere.
• A minority of Belvedere leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this applies to your lease, it would be prudent to place the estate agents on notice to make sure that the purchasers put in hand 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 service charge figures so that they can pass this information on to the buyers or their solicitors.
• If you have had any disputes with your landlord or managing agents it is very important that these are settled before the property is put on the market. The purchasers and their solicitors will be warry about purchasing a flat where there is an ongoing dispute. You may need to swallow your pride and 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 ahead of 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 better to reveal the dispute as historic as opposed to unsettled.
• If you are supposed to have a share in the Management Company, you should make sure that you are holding the original share certificate. Obtaining a duplicate share certificate can be a time consuming process and slows down many a Belvedere conveyancing transaction. If a new share certificate is required, do contact the company director and secretary or managing agents (if relevant) for this at the earliest opportunity.

I have attempted and failed to negotiate with my landlord to extend my lease without any joy. Can I make an application to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal? Can you recommend a Belvedere conveyancing firm to act on my behalf?

if there is a missing freeholder 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 Leasehold Valuation Tribunal to determine the amount due.

An example of a Lease Extension matter before the tribunal for a Belvedere property is Various @ Colombus Square in January 2012. the Tribunal calculated the premiums to be paid for new leases for each of the flats in Mariners Walk to be £3822 and the premium to be paid for the new lease of 2 Knights Court to be £4439. This case was in relation to 13 flats. The unexpired term was 76 years.

Belvedere Leasehold Conveyancing - Sample of Questions you should consider Prior to Purchasing

The majority of Belvedere leasehold properties will incur a service bill for the upkeep of the block invoiced by the landlord. If you acquire the flat you will have to meet this amount, normally in instalments during the year. This could be anything from a couple of hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for bigger purpose-built blocks. In all likelihood there will be a ground rent to be met yearly, this is usually not a exorbitant amount, say around £25-£75 but you should to enquire as sometimes it can be many hundreds of pounds. The best form of lease arrangement is where the freehold interest is owned by the leaseholders. In this scenario the leaseholders enjoy control and notwithstanding that a managing agent is usually retained if the building is bigger than a house conversion, the managing agent retained by the leaseholders.