My wife and I may need to rent out our Brixton ground floor flat temporarily due to a career opportunity. We used a Brixton conveyancing practice in 2003 but they have since shut and we did not have the foresight to seek any advice as to whether the lease allows us to sublet. How do we find out?

Even though your last Brixton conveyancing lawyer is no longer around you can check your lease to check if you are permitted to let out the property. The rule is that if the deeds are non-specific, subletting is permitted. Quite often there is a prerequisite that you must obtain permission from your landlord or some other party in advance of subletting. This means that you cannot sublet in the absence of first obtaining consent. The consent is not allowed to be unreasonably refused ore delayed. If the lease does not allow you to sublet you should ask your landlord if they are willing to waive this restriction.

Having checked my lease I have discovered that there are only Sixty One years unexpired on my flat in Brixton. I need to extend my lease but my landlord is absent. What are my options?

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 mean that your lease can be extended by the magistrate. However, you will be required to demonstrate that you have done all that could be expected to locate the freeholder. For most situations a specialist would be helpful to try and locate and prepare a report to be accepted by the court as evidence that the freeholder is indeed missing. It is wise to seek advice from a solicitor both on investigating the landlord’s disappearance and the vesting order request to the County Court overseeing Brixton.

I have just started marketing my ground floor flat in Brixton.Conveyancing has not commenced but I have just had a quarterly maintenance charge invoice – Do I pay up?

The sensible thing to do is discharge the service charge 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 managing agents will not acknowledge the buyer until 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.

I am attracted to a couple of flats in Brixton which have about forty five years unexpired on the leases. Should I regard a short lease as a deal breaker?

There are no two ways about it. A leasehold apartment in Brixton is a wasting asset as a result of the shortening lease. The nearer the lease gets to its expiry date, the more it adversely affects the value of the premises. The majority of buyers and banks, leases with under eighty years become less and less attractive. On a more upbeat note, leaseholders can extend their leases by serving a Section 42 Notice. One stipulation is that they must have owned the premises for two years (unlike a Section 13 notice for purchasing the freehold, when leaseholders can participate from day one of ownership). When successful, they will have the right to an extension of 90 years to the current term and ground rent is effectively reduced to zero. Before moving forward with a purchase of premises with a short lease term remaining you should talk to a solicitor specialising in lease extensions and leasehold enfranchisement. We are are happy to put you in touch with Brixton conveyancing experts who will explain the options available to you during an initial telephone conversation free of charge. More often than not it is possible to negotiate informally with the freeholder to extend the lease They may agree to a smaller lump sum and an increase in the ground rent, but to shorter extension terms in return. You need to ensure that the agreed terms represent good long-term value compared with the standard benefits of the Section 42 Notice and that onerous clauses are not inserted into any redrafting of the lease.

Can you provide any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Brixton from the point of view of expediting the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Brixton can be avoided if you get in touch lawyers as soon as you market your property and request that they start to collate the leasehold information needed by the buyers lawyers.
• Some Brixton leases require Landlord’s consent to the sale and approval of the buyers. If this applies to your lease, you should place the estate agents on notice to make sure that the purchasers put in hand bank and professional references. Any bank reference should make it clear that the buyer is financially capable of paying 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 conflict with your landlord or managing agents it is essential that these are settled before the property is marketed. The purchasers and their solicitors will be warry about purchasing a property where there is an ongoing dispute. You will have to accept that you will have to discharge any arrears of service charge or resolve the dispute prior to completion of the sale. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled ahead of the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You will still have to reveal particulars of the dispute to the purchasers, but it is clearly preferable to present the dispute as over as opposed to ongoing.
• If you hold a share in a the freehold, you should ensure that you have the original share document. Arranging a duplicate share certificate can be a time consuming formality and delays many a Brixton conveyancing transaction. If a reissued share certificate is necessary, you should approach the company officers or managing agents (if relevant) for this at the earliest opportunity.
• You believe that you know the number of years left on your lease but it would be wise to double-check via your lawyers. A purchaser's lawyer will be unlikely to recommend their client to proceed with the purchase of a leasehold property the lease term is less than 75 years. In the circumstances it is important at an early stage that you consider whether the lease term for your property needs extending. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your home on the market for sale.

I have given up seeking a lease extension in Brixton. Can this matter be resolved via the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal?

if there is a absentee landlord or if there is dispute about the premium for a lease extension, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 it is possible to make an application to the LVT to determine the amount due.

An example of a Freehold Enfranchisement case for a Brixton premises is 66 Southwell Road in March 2012. By Order of Deputy District Judge Stone dated 25 January 2012 a vesting order was made. The determination of the purchase price was referred to the Tribunal who decided that the amount payable for the freehold should be£29,612.00 This case was in relation to 3 flats. The remaining number of years on the lease was 72.58 years.

I invested in buying a garden flat in Brixton, conveyancing formalities finalised 9 years ago. Can you give me give me an indication of the likely cost of a lease extension? Comparable flats in Brixton with an extended lease are worth £255,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £55 yearly. The lease comes to an end on 21st October 2079

With 53 years remaining on your lease the likely cost is going to range between £30,400 and £35,200 as well as legals.

The suggested premium range above a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we cannot give you the actual costs in the absence of detailed investigations. You should not use the figures in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There are no doubt additional concerns that need to be taken into account and clearly you want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. You should not move forward based on this information without first getting professional advice.