Last month I purchased a leasehold house in Blackheath. Do I have any liability for service charges for periods before my ownership?

Where the service charge has already been demanded from the previous lessee and they have not paid you would not usually be personally liable for the arrears. However, your landlord may still be able to take action to forfeit the lease. It is an essential part of leasehold conveyancing for your conveyancer to ensure to have an up to date clear service charge receipt before completion of your purchase. If you have a mortgage this is likely to be a requirement of your lender.

If you purchase part way through an accounting year you may be liable for charges not yet demanded even if they relate to a period prior to your purchase. In such circumstances your conveyancer would normally arrange for the seller to set aside some money to cover their part of the period (usually called a service charge retention).

I work for a busy estate agent office in Blackheath where we see a number of flat sales jeopardised due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have received contradictory information from local Blackheath conveyancing firms. Could you confirm whether the owner of a flat can instigate the lease extension process for the buyer?

Provided that the seller has been the owner for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to kick-start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. The benefit of this is that the buyer can avoid having to wait 2 years for a lease extension. 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 purchaser.

Can you offer any advice when it comes to appointing a Blackheath conveyancing firm to carry out our lease extension conveyancing?

When appointing a solicitor for your lease extension (regardless if they are a Blackheath conveyancing firm) it is most important that he or she should be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of conveyancing. We suggested that you talk with two or three firms including non Blackheath conveyancing practices before you instructing a firm. Where the conveyancing practice is ALEP accredited then that’s a bonus. Some following of questions might be useful:

• If they are not ALEP accredited then what is the reason?
• How many lease extensions has the firm carried out in Blackheath in the last 12 months?

Our conveyancer has advised that he intends to complete and exchange simultaneously on the disposal of our £ 150000 apartment in Blackheath in just under a week. The freeholder has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Landlord’s certificate, insurance certificate and previous years service charge statements. Is the landlord entitled to charge such fees for a flat conveyance in Blackheath?

Blackheath conveyancing on leasehold maisonettes more often than not necessitates the buyer’s lawyer sending enquiries for the landlord to address. Although the landlord is under no legal obligation to address such questions the majority will be willing to do so. They are entitled levy a reasonable administration fee for responding to enquiries or supplying documentation. There is no set fee. The average costs for the paperwork that you are referring to is £350, in some cases it is above £800. The management information fee demanded by the landlord must be accompanied by a summary of entitlements and obligations in relation to administration charges, without which the invoice is technically not due. Reality however dictates that one has little choice but to pay whatever is demanded if you want to exchange contracts with the buyer.

After years of dialogue we cannot agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in Blackheath. Does the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal have jurisdiction to calculate the appropriate figures?

Most definitely. We can put you in touch with a Blackheath conveyancing firm who can help.

An example of a Lease Extension case for a Blackheath premises is 73 Walerand Road in August 2012. the result of the findings of the Tribunal led to a premium to be paid for the extended lease in respect of Flat 73 in the sum of £10,040. The premium applicable in respect of Flat 85 was £5,710. This case affected 2 flats. The unexpired term was 72 years.

What are the frequently found defects that you come across in leases for Blackheath properties?

Leasehold conveyancing in Blackheath is not unique. All leases is drafted differently and drafting errors can sometimes mean that certain provisions are wrong. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:

• A provision to repair to or maintain parts of the building
• 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

A defective lease can cause issues when trying to sell a property as they can affect a potential buyer’s ability to obtain a mortgage. Barclays , The Royal Bank of Scotland, and Alliance & Leicester all have express requirements when it comes to what is expected in a lease. If a mortgage lender believes that the lease is problematic they may refuse to provide security, obliging the purchaser to withdraw.

I am the registered owner of a studio flat in Blackheath, conveyancing was carried out 1995. Can you shed any light on how much the price could be for a 90 year extension to my lease? Comparable flats in Blackheath with an extended lease are worth £249,000. The ground rent is £45 invoiced every year. The lease ends on 21st October 2088

You have 62 years unexpired we estimate the price of your lease extension to be between £18,100 and £20,800 plus 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 a more accurate figure without more comprehensive due diligence. Do not use this information in tribunal or court proceedings. There are no doubt additional concerns that need to be taken into account and you obviously want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Please do not move forward placing reliance on this information without first getting professional advice.