My wife and I may need to let out our Enfield Town basement flat for a while due to a new job. We used a Enfield Town conveyancing firm in 2004 but they have closed and we did not think at the time get any advice as to whether the lease prohibits the subletting of the flat. How do we find out?

Your lease governs the relationship between the landlord and you the flat owner; in particular, it will say if subletting is not allowed, or permitted but only subject to certain conditions. The rule is that if the lease contains no specific ban or restriction, subletting is permitted. The majority of leases in Enfield Town do not contain subletting altogether – such a provision would adversely affect the market value the flat. In most cases there is simply a requirement that the owner notifies the freeholder, possibly supplying a copy of the tenancy agreement.

You should [be sent a copy of the lease|receive a copy of the lease]

Planning to sign contracts shortly on a garden flat in Enfield Town. Conveyancing lawyers have said that they are sending me a report next week. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?

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

• Does the lease require carpeting throughout thus preventing wood flooring?
• Are pets allowed in the flat?
• Ground rent - how much and when you need to pay, and also know whether this will change in the future
• Whether your lease has a provision for a reserve fund?
• 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
• What the implications are if you breach a clause of your lease?

For details of the information to be contained in your report on your leasehold property in Enfield Town please ask your solicitor in ahead of your conveyancing in Enfield Town

Estate agents have just been given the go-ahead to market my ground floor apartment in Enfield Town.Conveyancing has not commenced but I have just had a quarterly service charge demand – Do I pay up?

Your conveyancing lawyer is likely to suggest that you should discharge 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 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.

Do you have any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Enfield Town with the intention of saving time on the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Enfield Town can be bypassed where you get in touch lawyers as soon as your agents start marketing the property and request that they start to put together the leasehold documentation needed by the purchasers’ solicitors.
• Many landlords or managing agents in Enfield Town levy fees for supplying management packs for a leasehold homes. You or your lawyers should discover the fee that they propose to charge. The management pack sought on or before finding a buyer, thus accelerating the process. The average time it takes to receive management information is three weeks. It is the most frequent reason for frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Enfield Town.
• In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s approval? In particular have you laid down wooden flooring? Most leases in Enfield Town state that internal structural changes or addition of wooden flooring necessitate a licence issued by the Landlord approving such works. Where you dont have the approvals in place you should not contact the landlord without checking with your conveyancer in advance.
• Some Enfield Town leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this is the case, it would be prudent to notify your estate agents to make sure that the purchasers obtain bank and professional references. The bank reference should make it clear that the buyer is financially capable of paying the annual 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 actual amount of the service charge so that they can pass this information on to the buyers or their lawyers.
• If there is a history of conflict with your landlord or managing agents it is very important that these are settled before the property is put on the market. The purchasers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a property where a dispute is ongoing. You will have to accept that you will have to discharge any arrears of service charge or resolve the dispute prior to the buyers completing the purchase. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled prior to the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You will still have to reveal particulars of the dispute to the buyers, but it is better to reveal the dispute as historic as opposed to unsettled.

If all goes to plan we aim to complete the sale of our £ 150000 flat in Enfield Town next week. The management company has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Certificate of Compliance, building insurance schedule and 3 years service charge statements. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge exorbitant fees for a flat conveyance in Enfield Town?

For most leasehold sales in Enfield Town conveyancing will involve, questions about the management of a building inevitably needing to be answered directly by the freeholder or its agent, this includes :

• Completing pre-contract enquiries
• Where consent is required before sale in Enfield Town
• 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 Enfield Town leasehold premises is £350. For Enfield Town 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 answers.

Following years of correspondence we are unable to agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in Enfield Town. Can we issue an application to the Residential Property Tribunal Service?

in cases where there is a absentee freeholder 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 judgment on the price payable.

An example of a Lease Extension decision for a Enfield Town residence is First Floor Flat 109 Lyndhurst Road in May 2010. Following a vesting order by Edmonton County Court on 29th October 2009 the Tribunal decided on a figure of £5,012 for a lease extension. This case was in relation to 1 flat. The unexpired lease term was 81.79 years.

Enfield Town Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - A selection of Queries Prior to buying

The best form of lease structure is where the freehold reversion is in the ownership of the leaseholders. In this scenario the lessees benefit from being in charge if their destiny and even though a managing agent is often retained if it is larger than a house conversion, the managing agent is directed by the tenants.