Having checked my lease I have discovered that there are only Seventy years unexpired on my flat in Bexleyheath. I need to get lease extension but my landlord is can not be found. What options are available to me?

On the basis that 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 mean that your lease can be lengthened by the Court. However, you will be required to prove that you have used your best endeavours to find the lessor. For most situations a specialist should be helpful to conduct investigations and to produce a report to be accepted by the court as evidence that the landlord is indeed missing. It is wise to seek advice from a property lawyer in relation to investigating the landlord’s disappearance and the vesting order request to the County Court covering Bexleyheath.

I am looking at a couple of flats in Bexleyheath both have in the region of forty five years left on the lease term. Should I regard a short lease as a deal breaker?

There are plenty of short leases in Bexleyheath. The lease is a right to use the premises for a prescribed time frame. As a lease shortens the value of the lease deteriorate and results in it becoming more costly to extend the lease. For this reason it is advisable to extend the lease term. More often than not it is difficulties arise selling premises with a short lease because mortgage companies less inclined to grant a loan on such properties. Lease enfranchisement can be a difficult process. We recommend you seek professional assistance from a conveyancer and surveyor with experience in this field

I work for a reputable estate agent office in Bexleyheath where we see a number of leasehold sales derailed as a result of short leases. I have been given inconsistent advice from local Bexleyheath conveyancing solicitors. Could you confirm whether the owner of a flat can initiate the lease extension process for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

Provided that the seller has been the owner for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to commence 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 wait 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 sale.

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.

What advice can you give us when it comes to finding a Bexleyheath conveyancing firm to carry out our lease extension conveyancing?

If you are instructing a property lawyer for lease extension works (regardless if they are a Bexleyheath conveyancing practice) it is essential that he or she should be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of conveyancing. We suggested that you speak with two or three firms including non Bexleyheath conveyancing practices prior to instructing a firm. If the firm is ALEP accredited then that’s a bonus. Some following of questions might be of use:

• If the firm is not ALEP accredited then why not?
• Can they put you in touch with client in Bexleyheath who can give a testimonial?

If all goes to plan we aim to complete the sale of our £ 500000 garden flat in Bexleyheath in nine days. The management company has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Landlord’s certificate, insurance certificate and previous years service charge statements. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge such fees for a flat conveyance in Bexleyheath?

Bexleyheath conveyancing on leasehold maisonettes ordinarily involves fees being levied by managing agents :

• Answering pre-exchange questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Bexleyheath
• 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 Bexleyheath leasehold property is £350. For Bexleyheath 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 the information.

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

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

An example of a Lease Extension matter before the tribunal for a Bexleyheath premises 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 related to 13 flats. The unexpired lease term was 76 years.

I purchased a 1 bedroom flat in Bexleyheath, conveyancing having been completed 3 years ago. Can you let me have an estimate of the premium that my landlord can legally expect in return for granting a renewal of my lease? Equivalent properties in Bexleyheath with a long lease are worth £169,000. The ground rent is £45 levied per year. The lease expires on 21st October 2098

With just 72 years unexpired we estimate the price of your lease extension to be between £12,400 and £14,200 as well as costs.

The figure above a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we are not able to supply the actual costs in the absence of comprehensive investigations. Do not use the figures in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There are no doubt additional issues that need to be considered and clearly you should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Neither should you move forward placing reliance on this information without first getting professional advice.