I’m about to sell my garden flat in Eel Pie Island.Conveyancing solicitors are to be appointed soon but I have just received a quarterly maintenance charge invoice – should I leave it to the buyer to sort out?

The sensible thing to do is clear 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 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.

I am looking at a couple of maisonettes in Eel Pie Island which have in the region of 50 years remaining on the leases. Do I need to be concerned?

There are plenty of short leases in Eel Pie Island. The lease is a legal document that entitles you to use the property for a period of time. As the lease gets shorter the marketability of the lease decreases and it becomes more expensive to extend the lease. This is why it is advisable to increase the term of the lease. More often than not it is difficult to sell a property with a short lease because mortgage companies less inclined to grant a loan on such properties. Lease enfranchisement can be a difficult process. We recommend you get professional help from a conveyancer and surveyor with experience in this area

Last month I purchased a leasehold property in Eel Pie Island. Am I liable to pay service charges for periods before completion of my purchase?

Where the service charge has already been demanded from the previous owner and they have not paid you would not usually be personally liable for the arrears. Strange as it may seem, your landlord may still be able to take action to forfeit the lease. A critical element of leasehold conveyancing for your conveyancer to ensure to have an up to date clear service charge receipt before completion of your purchase. If you have a mortgage this is likely to be a requirement of your lender.

If you purchase part way through an accounting year you may be liable for charges not yet demanded even if they relate to a period prior to your purchase. In such circumstances your conveyancer would normally arrange for the seller to set aside some money to cover their part of the period (usually called a service charge retention).

I work for a reputable estate agency in Eel Pie Island where we have witnessed a few leasehold sales put at risk as a result of short leases. I have received conflicting advice from local Eel Pie Island conveyancing solicitors. Can you clarify whether the vendor of a flat can commence the lease extension process for the buyer?

Provided that the seller has owned the lease for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. The benefit of this is that the proposed purchaser can avoid having to sit tight for 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done before, or simultaneously with completion of the sale.

An alternative approach is to agree the lease extension with the freeholder 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 buyer.

Do you have any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Eel Pie Island with the aim of speeding up the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Eel Pie Island can be avoided where you appoint lawyers the minute you market your property and request that they start to put together the leasehold information needed by the buyers solicitors.
• If you have carried out any alterations to the property would they have required Landlord’s approval? In particular have you laid down wooden flooring? Most leases in Eel Pie Island state that internal structural alterations or installing wooden flooring necessitate a licence from the Landlord consenting to such alterations. Where you fail to have the approvals to hand you should not communicate with the landlord without checking with your solicitor in the first instance.

I own a garden flat in Eel Pie Island. In the absence of agreement between myself and the landlord, can the Leasehold valuation Tribunal determine the sum payable for the purchase of the freehold?

in cases where there is a missing landlord or where there is disagreement about the premium for a lease extension, under the relevant statutes you can apply to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) to decide the price.

An example of a Lease Extension decision for a Eel Pie Island property is Ground Floor Flat 91 Bath Road in May 2009. in a case where the freeholder could not be traced, the Brentford County Court ordered that the Lease be surrendered in return for the grant of a new lease of the Premises at a premium determined by the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal. The tribunal concluded that the price payable by the Applicant for the new lease of the premises be £15,900 This case affected 1 flat. The the unexpired residue of the current lease was 60.45 years.