My fiance and I may need to let out our Cubitt Town garden flat temporarily due to a new job. We used a Cubitt Town conveyancing practice in 2001 but they have since shut and we did not think at the time seek any guidance as to whether the lease permits subletting. How do we find out?

Even though your last Cubitt Town conveyancing lawyer is not available you can check your lease to see if you are permitted to let out the apartment. The rule is that if the lease is silent, subletting is permitted. There may be a precondition that you must obtain consent via your landlord or some other party before subletting. This means you not allowed to sublet in the absence of prior permission. The consent should not be unreasonably refused ore delayed. If your lease does not allow you to sublet you will need to ask your landlord for their consent.

Expecting to exchange soon on a garden flat in Cubitt Town. Conveyancing solicitors inform me that they are sending me a report within the next couple of days. What should I be looking out for?

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

• Setting out your legal entitlements in respect of the communal areas in the building.For instance, does the lease contain a right of way over a path or hallways?
• Does the lease prevent you from renting out the flat, or having a home office for business
• You must be told what counts as a Nuisance in the lease
• Whether your lease has a provision for a reserve fund?
• You should have a good understanding of the insurance provisions
• Changes to the flat (alterations and additions)
• The landlord’s obligations to repair and maintain the building. It is important that you know who is responsible for the repair and maintenance of every part of the building

I’m about to sell my ground floor apartment in Cubitt Town.Conveyancing is yet to be initiated but I have just had a yearly service charge demand – what should I do?

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 management companies 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.

What advice can you give us when it comes to choosing a Cubitt Town conveyancing firm to deal with our lease extension?

When appointing a property lawyer for lease extension works (regardless if they are a Cubitt Town conveyancing practice) it is essential that he or she should be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of work. We recommend that you make enquires with several firms including non Cubitt Town conveyancing practices before you instructing a firm. Where the conveyancing practice is ALEP accredited then so much the better. Some following of questions might be useful:

• If the firm is not ALEP accredited then what is the reason?
• How many lease extensions have they carried out in Cubitt Town in the last 12 months?

Do you have any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Cubitt Town from the perspective of speeding up the sale process?

• Much of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Cubitt Town can be reduced where you instruct lawyers the minute you market your property and ask them to collate the leasehold documentation needed by the buyers conveyancers.
• The majority landlords or managing agents in Cubitt Town charge for providing management packs for a leasehold property. You or your lawyers should find out the actual amount of the charges. The management information sought on or before finding a buyer, thus accelerating the process. The average time it takes to obtain the necessary information is three weeks. It is the most common cause of delay in leasehold conveyancing in Cubitt Town.
• If you have carried out any alterations to the property would they have required Landlord’s consent? Have you, for example installed wooden flooring? Cubitt Town leases often stipulate that internal structural changes or laying down wooden flooring necessitate a licence from the Landlord acquiescing to such changes. Should you fail to have the paperwork to hand you should not contact the landlord without checking with your conveyancer before hand.
• If you have had conflict with your freeholder or managing agents it is essential that these are settled prior to the flat being marketed. The buyers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a property where there is an ongoing dispute. 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 better to present the dispute as historic as opposed to unresolved.
• If you hold a share in a the freehold, you should make sure that you are holding the original share certificate. Organising a duplicate share certificate can be a time consuming process and delays many a Cubitt Town home move. Where a reissued share certificate is required, you should approach the company director and secretary or managing agents (if relevant) for this at the earliest opportunity.

I am the leaseholder of a ground flat in Cubitt Town. Given that I can not reach agreement with the landlord, can the Leasehold valuation Tribunal determine the amount due for the purchase of the freehold?

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

An example of a Freehold Enfranchisement case for a Cubitt Town residence is 12, 14 & 16 Hull Close in May 2010. the Tribunal determined that the premium payable for the acquisition of the freehold to the subject premises was the sum of £18,300 This case was in relation to 3 flats. The the unexpired residue of the current lease was 101.61 years.

I inherited a 1 bedroom flat in Cubitt Town, conveyancing formalities finalised half a dozen years ago. Can you shed any light on how much the price could be for a 90 year extension to my lease? Equivalent properties in Cubitt Town with over 90 years remaining are worth £264,000. The ground rent is £65 invoiced every year. The lease ends on 21st October 2089

With 63 years remaining on your lease the likely cost is going to span between £22,800 and £26,400 plus plus your own and the landlord's "reasonable" professional fees.

The suggested premium range that we have given is a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we are not able to advice on the actual costs in the absence of comprehensive due diligence. You should not use this information in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There are no doubt other issues that need to be taken into account and clearly you should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. You should not take any other action placing reliance on this information before seeking the advice of a professional.