I wish to sublet my leasehold flat in Crews Hill. Conveyancing solicitor who did the purchase is retired - so can't ask her. Is permission from the freeholder required?

Notwithstanding that your last Crews Hill conveyancing lawyer is no longer around you can check your lease to see if you are permitted to let out the premises. The rule is that if the deeds are non-specific, subletting is allowed. There may be a precondition that you are obliged to obtain consent from your landlord or some other party in advance of subletting. The net result is you not allowed to sublet in the absence of first obtaining permission. Such consent is not allowed to be unreasonably turned down. If your lease does not allow you to sublet you will need to ask your landlord if they are willing to waive this restriction.

I only have 62 years remaining on my flat in Crews Hill. I need to get lease extension but my landlord is absent. What should I do?

On the basis that you qualify, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can submit an application to the County Court for an order to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will mean that your lease can be lengthened by the Court. However, you will be required to prove that you or your lawyers have used your best endeavours to track down the landlord. On the whole a specialist may be useful to carry out a search and prepare a report which can be used as proof that the landlord is indeed missing. It is advisable to get professional help from a property lawyer in relation to proving the landlord’s disappearance and the application to the County Court covering Crews Hill.

Can you provide any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Crews Hill with the aim of speeding up the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Crews Hill can be reduced if you appoint lawyers as soon as your agents start advertising the property and request that they start to put together the leasehold documentation needed by the purchasers’ representatives.
• Many freeholders or managing agents in Crews Hill charge for providing management packs for a leasehold homes. You or your lawyers should find out the fee that they propose to charge. The management information can be applied for as soon as you have a buyer, thus reducing delays. The typical amount of time it takes to receive management information is three weeks. It is the most usual reason for delay in leasehold conveyancing in Crews Hill.

A minority of Crews Hill leases require Landlord’s consent to the sale and approval of the buyers. If this applies to your lease, you should notify your estate agents to make sure that the purchasers obtain bank and professional references. Any bank reference should make it clear that the buyer is financially capable of paying the annual 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 actual amount of the service charge so that they can pass this information on to the purchasers or their solicitors.

If there is a history of any disputes with your freeholder or managing agents it is very important that these are settled before the property is put on the market. The buyers and their solicitors will be concerned about purchasing a property where there is a current dispute. You will have to accept that you will have to pay any arrears of service charge or resolve the dispute prior to the buyers completing the purchase. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled ahead of the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You will still have to reveal particulars of the dispute to the buyers, but it is clearly preferable to reveal the dispute as over rather than unresolved.

You may think that you are aware of the number of years remaining on your lease but it would be advisable double-check by asking your solicitors. A purchaser's conveyancer will not be happy to advise their client to to exchange contracts if the lease term is less than 75 years. It is therefore important at an as soon as possible that you identify whether the lease term for your property needs extending. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your home on the market for sale.

Our conveyancer has advised that he intends to complete and exchange simultaneously on our sale of a £325000 maisonette in Crews Hill next week. The freeholder has quoted £348 for Landlord’s certificate, insurance certificate and 3 years service charge statements. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge exorbitant fees for a flat conveyance in Crews Hill?

Crews Hill conveyancing on leasehold maisonettes ordinarily involves fees being invoiced by managing agents :

• Answering pre-exchange questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Crews Hill
• 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 solicitor will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for Crews Hill leasehold premises is £350. For Crews Hill 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 answers.

After years of negotiations we are unable to agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in Crews Hill. Does the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal have jurisdiction to calculate the appropriate figures?

Most definitely. We are happy to put you in touch with a Crews Hill conveyancing firm who can help.

An example of a Freehold Enfranchisement case for a Crews Hill property is 23 Beaconsfield Road in July 2013. The Tribunals decided that the amount payable was £31,203 for the freehold. This case affected 2 flats. The the unexpired term as at the valuation date was 70.31 years.

What are the common defects that you witness in leases for Crews Hill properties?

There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Crews Hill. Most leases are unique and legal mistakes in the legal wording can result in certain provisions are not included. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:

• A provision to repair to or maintain parts of the property
• A duty to insure the building
• Clauses dealing with recovering service charges for expenditure on the building or common parts.
• Maintenance charge proportions which don’t add up to the correct percentage

You will have difficulties when selling your property if you have a defective lease primarily because it impacts on the ability to obtain a mortgage on the property. Santander, The Royal Bank of Scotland, and Alliance & Leicester all have very detailed requirements when it comes to what is expected in a lease. If a mortgage lender believes that the lease is problematic they may refuse to provide security, obliging the buyer to withdraw.