I've found a house that appears to be perfect, at a reasonable figure which is making it more attractive. I have just discovered that it's a leasehold rather than freehold. I am assuming that there are particular concerns buying a house with a leasehold title in Cheam. Conveyancing lawyers have are about to be appointed. Will my lawyers set out the risks of buying a leasehold house in Cheam ?

The majority of houses in Cheam are freehold rather than leasehold. This is one of the situations where having a local conveyancer used to dealing with such properties who can help the conveyancing process. We note that you are buying in Cheam so you should seriously consider looking for a Cheam conveyancing solicitor and be sure that they have experience in transacting on leasehold houses. First you will need to check the number of years remaining. As a tenant you will not be at liberty to do whatever you want to the property. The lease comes with conditions such as obtaining the landlord’spermission to carry out changes to the property. You may also be required to pay a maintenance charge towards the maintenance of the communal areas where the house is located on an estate. Your conveyancer should advise you fully on all the issues.

I am attracted to a couple of apartments in Cheam which have approximately 50 years left on the leases. Do I need to be concerned?

A lease is a right to use the premises for a period of time. As a lease gets shorter the value of the lease reduces and results in it becoming more expensive to acquire a lease extension. This is why it is generally wise to increase the term of the lease. It is often difficult to sell a property with a short lease as mortgage lenders less inclined to grant a loan on properties of this type. Lease extension can be a difficult process. We recommend you get professional help from a conveyancer and surveyor with experience in this arena

I am a negotiator for a reputable estate agency in Cheam where we have experienced a number of flat sales jeopardised due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given inconsistent advice from local Cheam conveyancing firms. Please can you clarify whether the seller of a flat can commence the lease extension formalities for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

As long as 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. The benefit of this is that the proposed purchaser can avoid having to sit tight for 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done prior to, or at the same time as completion of the disposal of the property.

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.

Our conveyancer has advised that he intends to complete and exchange simultaneously on our sale of a £ 125000 garden flat in Cheam in nine days. The freeholder has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Certificate of Compliance, building insurance schedule and previous years service charge statements. Is the landlord entitled to charge such fees for a flat conveyance in Cheam?

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

• Answering pre-exchange questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Cheam
• 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 Cheam leasehold premises is £350. For Cheam 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 supply answers.

After months of correspondence we are unable to agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in Cheam. Can we issue an application to the Residential Property Tribunal Service?

if there is a missing landlord or if there is disagreement about what the lease extension should cost, under the relevant statutes you can apply to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal to decide the amount due.

An example of a Lease Extension decision for a Cheam flat is 33 The Maisonettes Alberta Avenue in June 2014. the Tribunal decided that the premium payable for the grant of a new lease be the sum of £20,680 (Twenty Thousand six hundred and eighty pounds). This case affected 1 flat. The the number of years remaining on the existing lease(s) was 60.43 years.

When it comes to leasehold conveyancing in Cheam what are the most common lease defects?

Leasehold conveyancing in Cheam is not unique. All leases are individual and legal mistakes in the legal wording can result in certain sections are wrong. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:

• A provision to repair to or maintain elements of the property
• Insurance obligations
• 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 problems when trying to sell a property as they can affect a potential buyer’s ability to obtain a mortgage. Accord Mortgages Ltd, The Royal Bank of Scotland, and Aldermore all have express conveyancing instructions when it comes to what is expected in a lease. Where a lender has been advised by their lawyers that the lease is problematic they may refuse to grant the mortgage, obliging the buyer to pull out.

I bought a ground floor flat in Cheam, conveyancing having been completed half a dozen years ago. Can you give me give me an indication of the likely cost of a lease extension? Comparable flats in Cheam with an extended lease are worth £225,000. The ground rent is £50 yearly. The lease finishes on 21st October 2088

With 62 years remaining on your lease the likely cost is going to be between £19,000 and £22,000 as well as professional fees.

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 comprehensive due diligence. Do not use this information in tribunal or court proceedings. There may be other concerns that need to be taken into account and you obviously should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Neither should you take any other action placing reliance on this information before getting professional advice.