I have recently realised that I have Fifty years unexpired on my lease in Canning Town. I now want to get lease extension but my landlord is missing. What options are available to me?

If you qualify, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can submit an application to the County Court for for permission to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will enable the lease to be granted an extra 90 years by the Court. You will be obliged to prove that you or your lawyers have done all that could be expected to track down the landlord. In some cases an enquiry agent may be useful to conduct investigations and to produce a report to be accepted by the court as evidence that the landlord is indeed missing. It is advisable to get professional help from a property lawyer in relation to investigating the landlord’s absence and the application to the County Court overseeing Canning Town.

I am looking at a two maisonettes in Canning Town both have in the region of 50 years unexpired on the leases. Do I need to be concerned?

There is no doubt about it. A leasehold apartment in Canning Town is a wasting asset as a result of the shortening lease. The closer the lease gets to zero years unexpired, the more it adversely affects the marketability of the premises. The majority of purchasers and mortgage companies, 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 Canning Town 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 any new 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.

I am a negotiator for a busy estate agency in Canning Town where we see a number of flat sales derailed due to short leases. I have been given inconsistent advice from local Canning Town conveyancing firms. Can you clarify whether the owner of a flat can initiate the lease extension process 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 kick-start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. This means that the proposed purchaser need not have to sit tight for 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.

Alternatively, it may be possible to extend the lease informally by agreement with the landlord 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 provide any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Canning Town from the perspective of speeding up the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Canning Town can be bypassed if you get in touch lawyers the minute you market your property and request that they start to collate the leasehold documentation which will be required by the buyers representatives.
• In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s permission? In particular have you installed wooden flooring? Most leases in Canning Town state that internal structural alterations or installing wooden flooring require a licence issued by the Landlord approving such changes. If you dont have the paperwork to hand do not communicate with the landlord without checking with your solicitor in the first instance.
• A minority of Canning Town leases require Landlord’s consent to the sale and approval of the buyers. If this applies to your lease, it would be prudent to place the estate agents on notice to make sure that the purchasers obtain bank and professional references. The bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are able to meet 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 purchasers or their solicitors.
• If you are supposed to have a share in the Management Company, you should ensure that you are holding the original share certificate. Obtaining a replacement share certificate is often a time consuming process and slows down many a Canning Town conveyancing transaction. If a new share certificate is needed, you should approach the company officers or managing agents (if applicable) for this at the earliest opportunity.
• You believe that you know the number of years left on your lease but it would be advisable double-check by asking your lawyers. A purchaser's conveyancer will be unlikely to recommend their client to where the remaining number of years is below 80 years. In the circumstances it is essential at an as soon as possible that you identify whether the lease requires a lease extension. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your premises on the market for sale.

Completion in due on the sale of our £ 300000 apartment in Canning Town on Thursday in a week. The landlords agents has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Certificate of Compliance, building insurance schedule and 3 years statements of service charge. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge such fees for a flat conveyance in Canning Town?

For the majority of leasehold sales in Canning Town conveyancing will involve, queries regarding the management of a building inevitably needing to be answered directly by the freeholder or its agent, this includes :

• Completing conveyancing due diligence enquiries
• Where consent is required before sale in Canning Town
• 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 conveyancer will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for Canning Town leasehold premises is £350. For Canning Town 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 required to provide the information.

I have given up trying to purchase the freehold in Canning Town. Can the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal adjudicate on premiums?

Where there is a missing freeholder or where there is disagreement about the premium for a lease extension, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the LVT to calculate the premium.

An example of a Lease Extension case for a Canning Town property is 46 Credon Road in January 2014. On 11 September 2013 Deputy District Judge Price sitting at the Bow County Court made a vesting order that the freeholder surrender his lease and be granted a new lease of the Premises on such terms as may be determined by the First Tier Tribunal (Property Chamber).The appropriate sum as concluded by the Tribunal was £7225 This case affected 1 flat. The remaining number of years on the lease was 69.77 years.

I bought a 1 bedroom flat in Canning Town, conveyancing formalities finalised in 2002. Can you please calculate a probable premium for a statutory lease extension? Corresponding flats in Canning Town with an extended lease are worth £245,000. The ground rent is £60 yearly. The lease expires on 21st October 2083

With just 57 years unexpired the likely cost is going to span between £28,500 and £33,000 plus legals.

The figure above a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we are not able to provide the actual costs without more detailed investigations. Do not use this information in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There are no doubt additional issues that need to be taken into account and clearly you want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. You should not take any other action placing reliance on this information without first getting professional advice.