There are only 72 years remaining on my lease in Coney Hall. I need to extend my lease but my landlord is can not be found. What are my options?

On the basis that you meet the appropriate requirements, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply 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. However, you will be required to demonstrate that you have used your best endeavours to locate the lessor. On the whole an enquiry agent would be useful to try and locate and prepare a report to be accepted by the court as evidence that the landlord is indeed missing. It is wise to seek advice from a conveyancer in relation to investigating the landlord’s absence and the application to the County Court overseeing Coney Hall.

Estate agents have just been given the go-ahead to market my basement apartment in Coney Hall.Conveyancing is yet to be initiated but I have just had a yearly service charge invoice – what should I do?

Your conveyancing lawyer is likely to suggest that you should 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 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. This will smooth the conveyancing process.

I am hoping to put an offer on a small detached house that seems to meet my requirements, at a great price which is making it more attractive. I have subsequently discovered that it's a leasehold as opposed to freehold. I am assuming that there are issues purchasing a house with a leasehold title in Coney Hall. Conveyancing lawyers have not yet been instructed. Will they explain the issues?

The majority of houses in Coney Hall are freehold and not leasehold. This is one of the situations where having a local conveyancer who is familiar with the area can assist with the conveyancing process. It is clear that you are buying in Coney Hall so you should seriously consider looking for a Coney Hall conveyancing practitioner and check that they are used to dealing with leasehold houses. First you will need to check the number of years remaining. Being a lessee you will not be entirely free to do whatever you want to the property. The lease will likely included provisions for example requiring the freeholder’sconsent to carry out alterations. You may also be required to pay a contribution towards the maintenance of the estate where the property is located on an estate. Your conveyancer will appraise you on the various issues.

I work for a long established estate agent office in Coney Hall where we have experienced a few leasehold sales derailed as a result of leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given contradictory information from local Coney Hall conveyancing solicitors. Please can you clarify whether the seller of a flat can initiate the lease extension formalities for the buyer?

As long as 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. The benefit of this is 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.

Alternatively, it may be possible 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.

All being well we will complete the disposal of our £375000 maisonette in Coney Hall next week. The freeholder has quoted £408 for Landlord’s certificate, building insurance schedule and previous years service charge statements. Is the landlord entitled to charge such fees for a flat conveyance in Coney Hall?

Coney Hall conveyancing on leasehold flats ordinarily necessitates administration charges levied by managing agents :

• Addressing pre-exchange enquiries
• Where consent is required before sale in Coney Hall
• 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 Coney Hall leasehold property is £350. For Coney Hall 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.

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

Most certainly. We are happy to put you in touch with a Coney Hall conveyancing firm who can help.

An example of a Lease Extension matter before the tribunal for a Coney Hall 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 number of years remaining on the existing lease(s) was 50.57 years.