I would like to let out my leasehold apartment in Cambridge Heath. Conveyancing solicitor who did the purchase is retired - so can't ask her. Is permission from the freeholder required?

Notwithstanding that your last Cambridge Heath conveyancing lawyer is no longer available you can review your lease to see if you are permitted to let out the apartment. The accepted inference is that if the lease is silent, subletting is allowed. There may be a precondition that you must seek consent via your landlord or other appropriate person before subletting. This means that you cannot sublet in the absence of prior permission. Such consent is not allowed to be unreasonably refused ore delayed. If the lease does not allow you to sublet you should ask your landlord for their consent.

I have just appointed agents to market my basement apartment in Cambridge Heath.Conveyancing is yet to be initiated but I have just had a quarterly service charge demand – what should I do?

It best that you pay 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 management companies 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 Cambridge Heath. Conveyancing and TSB mortgage organised. I have received a letter from someone claiming to own the reversionary interest in the property. It included a ground rent demand for rent dating back to 1996. The conveyancing solicitor in Cambridge Heath who acted for me is not around.Any advice?

First make enquiries of HMLR to make sure that this person is in fact the registered owner of the freehold reversion. It is not necessary to instruct a Cambridge Heath conveyancing solicitor to do this as you can do this on the Land Registry website for £3. Rest assured that regardless, even if this is the legitimate freeholder, under the Limitation Act 1980 no more than 6 years of rent can be collected.

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

Where the service charge has already been demanded from the previous owner 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 be sure 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).

We expect to complete our sale of a £ 475000 flat in Cambridge Heath on Thursday in a week. The management company has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Certificate of Compliance, insurance certificate and previous years service charge statements. Is the landlord entitled to charge such fees for a leasehold conveyance in Cambridge Heath?

Cambridge Heath conveyancing on leasehold apartments usually necessitates administration charges levied by management companies :

• Addressing pre-exchange questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Cambridge Heath
• 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 lawyer will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for Cambridge Heath leasehold premises is £350. For Cambridge Heath 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 supply the information.

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

Absolutely. We can put you in touch with a Cambridge Heath conveyancing firm who can help.

An example of a Freehold Enfranchisement decision for a Cambridge Heath property is 26 Rhondda Grove in June 2009. The net price payable by the leaseholders as determined by the Tribunal was £3,015.13. This comprised £11,300 premium for the reversion less £8,284.87 costs as ordered by the County Court.

I purchased a 1st floor flat in Cambridge Heath, conveyancing was carried out half a dozen years ago. Can you work out an approximate cost of a lease extension? Corresponding properties in Cambridge Heath with a long lease are worth £209,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £45 levied per year. The lease expires on 21st October 2076

With only 50 years remaining on your lease we estimate the premium for your lease extension to range between £39,900 and £46,200 as well as costs.

The figure that we have given is a general guide to costs for extending 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 may be other concerns that need to be considered and you obviously want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. You should not take any other action based on this information without first seeking the advice of a professional.