My wife and I may need to sub-let our Crayford 1st floor flat temporarily due to a career opportunity. We used a Crayford conveyancing firm in 2003 but they have closed and we did not think at the time seek any guidance as to whether the lease allows us to sublet. How do we find out?

A lease dictates the relationship between the landlord and you the leaseholder; specifically, it will set out if subletting is banned, or permitted but only subject to certain conditions. The accepted inference is that if the lease contains no specific ban or restriction, subletting is allowed. Most leases in Crayford do not contain subletting altogether – such a clause would undoubtedly devalue the property. Instead, there is usually simply a requirement that the owner notifies the freeholder, possibly sending a duplicate of the sublease.

Due to sign contracts shortly on a ground floor flat in Crayford. Conveyancing solicitors inform me that they will have a report out to me on Monday. What should I be looking out for?

Your report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in Crayford should include some of the following:

• You should be sent a copy of the lease

I have just started marketing my garden flat in Crayford.Conveyancing solicitors are to be appointed soon but I have just received a yearly service charge invoice – Do I pay up?

The sensible thing to do is clear the invoice 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 until 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 employed by a busy estate agent office in Crayford where we have witnessed a few flat sales put at risk as a result of leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given inconsistent advice from local Crayford conveyancing solicitors. Please can you confirm whether the vendor of a flat can start 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. This means that the proposed purchaser need not have to wait 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed prior to, or simultaneously with completion of the disposal of the property.

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 buyer.

What advice can you give us when it comes to appointing a Crayford conveyancing practice to deal with our lease extension?

When appointing a property lawyer for lease extension works (regardless if they are a Crayford conveyancing firm) it is essential that he or she should be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of work. We advise that you make enquires with several firms including non Crayford conveyancing practices prior to instructing a firm. If the firm is ALEP accredited then that’s a bonus. Some following of questions could be of use:

• How experienced is the practice with lease extension legislation?

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

You certainly can. We can put you in touch with a Crayford conveyancing firm who can help.

An example of a Lease Extension case for a Crayford residence is Various @ Colombus Square in January 2012. the Tribunal calculated the premiums to be paid for new leases for each of the flats in Mariners Walk to be £3822 and the premium to be paid for the new lease of 2 Knights Court to be £4439. This case related to 13 flats. The the number of years remaining on the existing lease(s) was 76 years.