Jane (my partner) and I may need to rent out our Earls Court basement flat for a while due to a career opportunity. We used a Earls Court conveyancing firm in 2002 but they have since shut 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?

Notwithstanding that your previous Earls Court conveyancing lawyer is no longer around you can check your lease to see if it allows you to sublet the premises. The accepted inference is that if the deeds are silent, subletting is permitted. There may be a precondition that you are obliged to obtain permission via your landlord or some other party in advance of subletting. This means that you cannot sublet without prior permission. The consent is not allowed to be unreasonably turned down. If the lease prohibits you from subletting the property you should ask your landlord if they are willing to waive this restriction.

I am employed by a long established estate agent office in Earls Court where we see a few flat sales put at risk due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given contradictory information from local Earls Court conveyancing solicitors. Please can you shed some light as to whether the seller of a flat can start the lease extension formalities for the buyer?

Provided that the seller has been the owner for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to commence the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. This means that the buyer can avoid having to wait 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done before, or at the same time as 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 purchaser.

What advice can you give us when it comes to finding a Earls Court conveyancing practice to deal with our lease extension?

When appointing a property lawyer for lease extension works (regardless if they are a Earls Court conveyancing firm) it is most important that he or she should be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of work. We recommend that you speak with several firms including non Earls Court conveyancing practices prior to instructing a firm. If the firm is ALEP accredited then so much the better. Some following of questions might be helpful:

• If they are not ALEP accredited then what is the reason?

If all goes to plan we aim to complete the disposal of our £200000 maisonette in Earls Court next week. The landlords agents has quoted £396 for Landlord’s certificate, insurance certificate and 3 years service charge statements. Is the landlord entitled to charge such fees for a leasehold conveyance in Earls Court?

Earls Court conveyancing on leasehold maisonettes normally requires the buyer’s solicitor sending enquiries for the landlord to address. Although the landlord is under no legal obligation to respond to such questions the majority will be content to do so. They may invoice a reasonable administration fee for answering enquiries or supplying documentation. There is no upper cap for such fees. The average costs for the information that you are referring to is £350, in some situations it is above £800. The administration charge invoiced by the landlord must be accompanied by a summary of rights and obligations in relation to administration fees, without which the invoice is technically not due. In reality one has no choice but to pay whatever is requested of you if you want to exchange contracts with the buyer.

Following months of negotiations we simply can't agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in Earls Court. Can we issue an application to the Residential Property Tribunal Service?

You certainly can. We are happy to put you in touch with a Earls Court conveyancing firm who can help.

An example of a Freehold Enfranchisement case for a Earls Court premises is 5 Wetherby Gardens in June 2014. the Tribunal concluded that the price to be paid for the freehold of the property was £2,369,452. This case was in relation to 5 flats. The remaining number of years on the lease was 38.98 years.

In relation to leasehold conveyancing in Earls Court what are the most frequent lease problems?

There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Earls Court. Most leases are unique and drafting errors can result in certain clauses are missing. The following missing provisions could result in a defective lease:

• Repairing obligations to or maintain elements of the building
• 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

A defective lease will likely cause problems when trying to sell a property as they can affect a potential buyer’s ability to obtain a mortgage. Santander, Leeds Building Society, and Godiva Mortgages Ltd all have very detailed conveyancing instructions when it comes to what is expected in a lease. Where a lender has been advised by their lawyers that the lease is problematic they may refuse to provide security, obliging the buyer to pull out.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Earls Court