I wish to rent out my leasehold apartment in Bromley Common. Conveyancing solicitor who did the purchase is retired - so can't ask her. Is permission from the freeholder required?

Notwithstanding that your previous Bromley Common conveyancing lawyer is no longer available you can check your lease to see if you are permitted to let out the property. The rule is that if the lease is silent, subletting is permitted. Quite often there is a prerequisite that you must obtain consent from your landlord or other appropriate person in advance of subletting. The net result is you not allowed to sublet without first obtaining consent. Such consent should not be unreasonably refused ore delayed. If your lease prohibits you from letting out the property you will need to ask your landlord for their consent.

Due to exchange soon on a basement flat in Bromley Common. Conveyancing solicitors assured me that they are sending me a report next week. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?

Your report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in Bromley Common should include some of the following:

• How long the lease is You should be advised as what happens when the lease ends, and aware of the importance of the 80 year mark

I have just appointed agents to market my basement flat in Bromley Common.Conveyancing is yet to be initiated but I have just had a yearly service charge invoice – Do I pay up?

Your conveyancing lawyer is likely to suggest that you should clear 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 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.

My wife and I purchased a leasehold flat in Bromley Common. Conveyancing and Yorkshire Building Society mortgage are in place. I have received a letter from someone claiming to own the freehold. It included a ground rent demand for rent dating back to 1994. The conveyancing solicitor in Bromley Common who acted for me is not around.Do I pay?

The first thing you should do is make enquiries of the Land Registry to make sure that this person is in fact the new freeholder. You do not need to incur the fees of a Bromley Common conveyancing practitioner to do this as you can do this on the Land Registry website for a few pound. Rest assured that in any event, even if this is the legitimate freeholder, under the Limitation Act 1980 no more than 6 years of rent can be collected.

I am a negotiator for a reputable estate agency in Bromley Common where we see a few leasehold sales derailed as a result of leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have received inconsistent advice from local Bromley Common conveyancing firms. Can you confirm whether the seller of a flat can start the lease extension formalities 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. This means that the proposed purchaser 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.

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

in cases where there is a missing freeholder or where there is dispute about the premium for a lease extension, under the relevant legislation it is possible to make an application to the LVT to arrive at the price.

An example of a Lease Extension case for a Bromley Common property is 1 Southlands Court Southlands Road in September 2013. The Leasehold Valuation Tribunal determined that the premium to be paid by the tenant on the grant of a new lease, in accordance with section 56 and Schedule 13 of the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 was £30,541 This case related to 1 flat. The the unexpired residue of the current lease was 50.57 years.