I am looking at a two maisonettes in Brondesbury both have in the region of 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 Brondesbury is a deteriorating asset as a result of the shortening lease. The closer the lease gets to its expiry date, the more it reduces the value of the property. The majority of buyers and mortgage companies, leases with less than 75 years become less and less marketable. On a more positive 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 a residence 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 Brondesbury 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.

Last month I purchased a leasehold flat in Brondesbury. Am I liable to pay service charges for periods before my ownership?

In a situation 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. A critical element 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 am employed by a reputable estate agent office in Brondesbury where we have experienced a number of flat sales derailed due to short leases. I have been given conflicting advice from local Brondesbury conveyancing solicitors. Please can you shed some light as to whether the owner of a flat can initiate the lease extension process for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

As long as the seller has owned the lease 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 to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed prior to, 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.

All being well we will complete the sale of our £ 350000 garden flat in Brondesbury next week. The landlords agents has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Certificate of Compliance, insurance certificate and previous years service charge statements. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge an administration fee for a flat conveyance in Brondesbury?

Brondesbury conveyancing on leasehold apartments more often than not necessitates the buyer’s solicitor submitting questions for the landlord to answer. Although the landlord is under no legal obligation to answer these enquiries most will be content to do so. They are entitled levy a reasonable administration fee for responding to enquiries or supplying documentation. There is no upper cap for such fees. The average costs for the information that you are referring to is over three hundred pounds, in some situations it exceeds £800. The management information fee levied by the landlord must be accompanied by a synopsis of rights and obligations in respect of administration charges, without which the charge is not strictly payable. In reality you have little choice but to pay whatever is demanded if you want to sell the property.

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

Where there is a absentee landlord or if there is dispute about what the lease extension should cost, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) to assess the sum to be paid.

An example of a Lease Extension decision for a Brondesbury flat is 50a Cavendish Road in April 2014. The Tribunal determines that the premium payable by the Applicant in respect of the extension of the lease for the flat was £82,319. This case related to 1 flat. The remaining number of years on the lease was 49.26 years.

What makes a Brondesbury lease unmortgageable?

Leasehold conveyancing in Brondesbury is not unique. All leases are unique and drafting errors can result in certain sections are not included. The following missing provisions could result in a defective lease:

• A provision to repair to or maintain elements of the property
• A duty to insure the building
• Clauses dealing with recovering service charges for expenditure on the building or common parts.
• Service charge per centages that don't add up correctly leaving a shortfall

A defective lease can cause issues when trying to sell a property primarily because it impacts on the ability to obtain a mortgage on the property. HSBC Bank, Chelsea Building Society, and Bank of Ireland all have express requirements when it comes to what is expected in a lease. Where a lender has been advised by their lawyers that the lease is defective they may refuse to grant the mortgage, forcing the buyer to pull out.

Leasehold Conveyancing in Brondesbury - Examples of Questions you should consider Prior to buying

Does the lease include onerous restrictions? The majority of Brondesbury leasehold properties will have a service bill for maintenance of the building set by the landlord. Should you buy the property you will have to pay this liability, normally periodically during the year. This can be anything from two or three hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for bigger purpose-built buildings. There will also be a rentcharge for you to pay yearly, ordinarily this is not a significant figure, say about £50-£100 but you need to check as on occasion it can be prohibitively expensive.