I am intending to rent out my leasehold flat in Crofton Park. Conveyancing solicitor who did the purchase is retired - so can't ask her. Is permission from the freeholder required?

Notwithstanding that your last Crofton Park conveyancing solicitor is not available you can check your lease to see if you are permitted to let out the premises. The accepted inference is that if the lease is non-specific, subletting is permitted. Quite often there is a prerequisite that you are obliged to obtain permission from your landlord or some other party before subletting. This means you not allowed to sublet without prior permission. The consent is not allowed to be unreasonably refused ore delayed. If your lease does not allow you to sublet you should ask your landlord if they are willing to waive this restriction.

I am hoping to complete next month on a ground floor flat in Crofton Park. Conveyancing lawyers inform me that they will have a report out to me within the next couple of days. What should I be looking out for?

The report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in Crofton Park should include some of the following:

• You should be sent a copy of the lease

The total extent of the premises. This will be the flat itself but might include a loft or cellar if appropriate.

Setting out your legal entitlements in relation to the communal areas in the building.E.G., does the lease provide for a right of way over an accessway or hallways?

Whether the lease restricts you from letting out the property, or working from home

You should be told what counts as a Nuisance in the lease

I don't know whether the lease allows me to alter or improve anything in the flat - you should know whether it applies to all alterations or just structural alteration, and whether consent is required

What you can do if a neighbour is in violation of a provision in their lease? For a comprehensive list of information to be included in your report on your leasehold property in Crofton Park please ask your conveyancer in advance of your conveyancing in Crofton Park

Estate agents have just been given the go-ahead to market my basement apartment in Crofton Park.Conveyancing solicitors are to be appointed soon but I have just received a quarterly service charge demand – Do I pay up?

The sensible thing to do is pay 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 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.

Do you have any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Crofton Park from the perspective of saving time on the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Crofton Park can be bypassed if you appoint lawyers as soon as you market your property and request that they start to collate the leasehold documentation which will be required by the purchasers’ lawyers.
• If you have carried out any alterations to the premises would they have required Landlord’s permission? Have you, for example installed wooden flooring? Crofton Park leases often stipulate that internal structural changes or laying down wooden flooring require a licence issued by the Landlord consenting to such changes. Where you fail to have the approvals to hand do not contact the landlord without contacting your lawyer in advance.

A minority of Crofton Park leases require Landlord’s consent to the sale and approval of the buyers. If this is the case, you should notify your estate agents to make sure that the purchasers obtain financial (bank) and professional references. The bank reference should make it clear that the buyer is 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 have had conflict with your freeholder or managing agents it is essential that these are resolved prior to the flat being put on the market. The purchasers and their solicitors will be warry about purchasing a flat where a dispute is unsettled. You may need to swallow your pride and pay any arrears of service charge or resolve the dispute prior to completion of the sale. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled prior to the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You are still duty bound to disclose particulars of the dispute to the purchasers, but it is clearly preferable to present the dispute as over rather than unsettled.

You believe that you know the number of years remaining on your lease but you should double-check via your conveyancers. A buyer’s conveyancer will not be happy to advise their client to where the remaining number of years is less than 80 years. It is therefore important at an early stage that you consider whether the lease term 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 Crofton Park in just under a week. The freeholder has quoted £372 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 leasehold conveyance in Crofton Park?

Crofton Park conveyancing on leasehold flats nine out of ten times results in fees being levied by managing agents :

• Completing pre-exchange enquiries
• Where consent is required before sale in Crofton Park
• 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 Crofton Park leasehold premises is £350. For Crofton Park 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 am the registered owner of a two-bedroom flat in Crofton Park. In the absence of agreement between myself and the freeholder, can the Leasehold valuation Tribunal make a decision on the sum payable for a lease extension?

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

An example of a Lease Extension matter before the tribunal for a Crofton Park property is Flat b 14 Kemble Road in May 2014. The Tribunal assessed the value of the premium payable for the lease extension to be £9,761 This case related to 1 flat.