There are only 72 years remaining on my lease in Ealing. I need to get lease extension but my landlord is missing. What are my options?

If you qualify, 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 extended by the Court. However, you will be required to prove that you have done all that could be expected to find the freeholder. In some cases a specialist should be helpful to try and locate and to produce a report to be accepted by the court as evidence that the landlord can not be located. It is advisable to get professional help from a conveyancer both on investigating the landlord’s absence and the application to the County Court overseeing Ealing.

I’m about to sell my garden flat in Ealing.Conveyancing solicitors are to be appointed soon but I have just received a half-yearly maintenance charge invoice – what should I do?

The sensible thing to do is discharge 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 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. Having a clear account will assist your cause and will leave you no worse off financially.

I am hoping to put an offer on a small detached house that seems to tick a lot of boxes, at a reasonable figure which is making it all the more appealing. I have since discovered that the title is leasehold rather than freehold. I would have thought that there are particular concerns purchasing a house with a leasehold title in Ealing. Conveyancing solicitors have not yet been instructed. Will they explain the issues?

The majority of houses in Ealing are freehold and not leasehold. In this scenario it’s worth having a local solicitor used to dealing with such properties who can assist with the conveyancing process. We note that you are buying in Ealing in which case you should be looking for a Ealing conveyancing practitioner and be sure that they have experience in transacting on leasehold houses. First you will need to check the number of years remaining. As a leaseholder you will not be at liberty to do whatever you want to the property. The lease comes with conditions such as obtaining the freeholder’sconsent to conduct changes to the property. You may also be required to pay a service charge towards the upkeep of the estate where the house is located on an estate. Your conveyancer should appraise you on the various issues.

Can you provide any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Ealing from the perspective of speeding up the sale process?

• Much of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Ealing can be avoided if you appoint lawyers as soon as you market your property and request that they start to put together the leasehold information which will be required by the buyers solicitors.
• Many freeholders or managing agents in Ealing levy fees for supplying management packs for a leasehold homes. You or your lawyers should find out the actual amount of the charges. The management information sought as soon as you have a buyer, thus reducing delays. The average time it takes to receive management information is three weeks. It is the most common cause of delay in leasehold conveyancing in Ealing.

Some Ealing leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this applies to your lease, it would be prudent to place the estate agents on notice to make sure that the purchasers obtain financial (bank) and professional references. Any 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 lawyers.

If you hold a share in a the freehold, you should make sure that you hold the original share document. Obtaining a replacement share certificate can be a lengthy process and frustrates many a Ealing conveyancing deal. If a new share certificate is required, do contact the company officers or managing agents (where applicable) for this as soon as possible.

You believe that you know the number of years left on your lease but you should double-check by asking your conveyancers. A purchaser's lawyer will not be happy to advise their client to to exchange contracts if the lease term is less than 75 years. In the circumstances it is essential at an early stage that you identify whether the lease for your property needs extending. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your home on the market for sale.

Completion in due on our sale of a £250000 flat in Ealing next week. The freeholder has quoted £324 for Landlord’s certificate, insurance certificate and previous years statements of service charge. Is the landlord entitled to charge an administration fee for a leasehold conveyance in Ealing?

Ealing conveyancing on leasehold apartments nine out of ten times necessitates fees being levied by landlords agents :

• Addressing pre-contract questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Ealing
• Supplying insurance information
• 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 Ealing leasehold premises is £350. For Ealing 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 supply the information.

I am the proprietor of a first floor flat in Ealing. Given that I can not reach agreement with the landlord, can the Leasehold valuation Tribunal make a decision on the premium payable for a lease extension?

in cases where there is a absentee freeholder or where there is dispute about the premium for a lease extension, under the relevant legislation it is possible to make an application to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) to decide the price payable.

An example of a Lease Extension matter before the tribunal for a Ealing property is Flat 4 38 The Mall in April 2014. the Tribunal held that the premium payable for the lease extension to be £25,451 This case related to 1 flat. The unexpired term was 68.7 years.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Ealing