I own a leasehold house in Erith. Conveyancing and The Royal Bank of Scotland mortgage are in place. I have received a letter from someone claiming to own the freehold. It included a ground rent demand for rent dating back to 1991. The conveyancing practitioner in Erith who acted for me is not around.What should I do?

First make enquiries of HMLR to make sure that this person is indeed the new freeholder. It is not necessary to incur the fees of a Erith conveyancing practitioner to do this as you can do this on the Land Registry website for £3. Rest assured that in any event, even if this is the legitimate freeholder, under the Limitation Act 1980 no more than 6 years of rent can be collected.

I am looking at a couple of maisonettes in Erith both have about forty five years unexpired on the leases. Will this present a problem?

There are no two ways about it. A leasehold apartment in Erith is a deteriorating asset as a result of the reducing lease term. The closer the lease gets to its expiry date, the more it adversely affects the value of the premises. The majority of buyers and mortgage companies, leases with less than 75 years become less and less marketable. On a more positive note, leaseholders can extend their leases by serving a Section 42 Notice. One stipulation is that they must have owned the property for two years (unlike a Section 13 notice for purchasing the freehold, when leaseholders can participate from day one of ownership). When successful, they will have the right to an extension of 90 years to the current term and ground rent is effectively reduced to zero. Before moving forward with a purchase of a residence with a short lease term remaining you should talk to a solicitor specialising in lease extensions and leasehold enfranchisement. We are are happy to put you in touch with Erith conveyancing experts who will explain the options available to you during an initial telephone conversation free of charge. More often than not it is possible to negotiate informally with the freeholder to extend the lease You may find he or she is happy to negotiate informally and willing to consider your offer straight off, without having to involve anyone else. This will save you time and money and it could help you reach a lower price on the lease. You need to ensure that the agreed terms represent good long-term value compared with the standard benefits of the Section 42 Notice and that onerous clauses are not inserted into any redrafting of the lease.

Last month I purchased a leasehold property in Erith. Am I liable to pay service charges relating to a period prior to completion of my purchase?

Where the service charge has already been demanded from the previous lessee and they have not paid you would not usually be personally liable for the arrears. However, your landlord may still be able to take action to forfeit the lease. It is an essential part 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 am employed by a long established estate agent office in Erith where we have experienced a few flat sales derailed as a result of leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have received contradictory information from local Erith conveyancing solicitors. Can you confirm whether the vendor of a flat can instigate the lease extension formalities for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

As long as the seller has owned the lease for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to kick-start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. The benefit of this is that the buyer need not have 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 sale.

Alternatively, it may be possible 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.

We expect to complete the disposal of our £ 400000 garden flat in Erith next week. The freeholder 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 such fees for a leasehold conveyance in Erith?

Erith conveyancing on leasehold apartments more often than not involves the buyer’s lawyer sending questions for the landlord to address. Although the landlord is under no legal obligation to address these enquiries the majority will be willing to do so. They are at liberty levy a reasonable administration fee for answering questions or supplying documentation. There is no set fee. The average fee for the information that you are referring to is over three hundred pounds, in some cases it is above £800. The administration charge invoiced by the landlord must be accompanied by a summary of rights and obligations in respect of administration charges, without which the charge is technically not due. Reality however dictates that you have little option but to pay whatever is requested of you should you wish to exchange contracts with the buyer.

We have reached the end of our tether in trying to reach an agreement for a lease extension in Erith. Can this matter be resolved via the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal?

Most definitely. We can put you in touch with a Erith conveyancing firm who can help.

An example of a Lease Extension case for a Erith residence is Various @ Colombus Square in January 2012. the Tribunal calculated the premiums to be paid for new leases for each of the flats in Mariners Walk to be £3822 and the premium to be paid for the new lease of 2 Knights Court to be £4439. This case was in relation to 13 flats. The the unexpired residue of the current lease was 76 years.

Erith Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - Examples of Queries Prior to Purchasing

It would be prudent to find out as much as possible concerning the company managing the building as they will either make life much easier or problematic. Being a leasehold owner you will be in the clutches of the managing agents both financially and when it comes to daily matters such as the tidiness of the common parts. Enquire of other tenants if they are happy with them. Finally, find out the dates that you are obliged pay the maintenance charge to the appropriate party and precisely how they are spending that money.