My husband and I may need to sub-let our Fitzrovia 1st floor flat for a while due to a career opportunity. We instructed a Fitzrovia conveyancing practice in 2003 but they have closed and we did not have the foresight to get any advice as to whether the lease permits subletting. How do we find out?

Even though your previous Fitzrovia conveyancing solicitor is not available you can review your lease to see if it allows you to sublet the apartment. The rule is that if the lease is non-specific, subletting is allowed. There may be a precondition that you are obliged to obtain permission from your landlord or other appropriate person prior to subletting. The net result is that you cannot sublet in the absence of first obtaining permission. Such consent is not allowed to be unreasonably refused ore delayed. If your lease prohibits you from subletting the property you will need to ask your landlord for their consent.

Looking forward to sign contracts shortly on a leasehold property in Fitzrovia. Conveyancing solicitors inform me that they are sending me a report tomorrow. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?

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

• Details of the parties to the lease, for example these could be the leaseholder (you), head lessor, landlord

My wife and I purchased a leasehold flat in Fitzrovia. Conveyancing and Barclays Direct mortgage are in place. I have received a letter from someone saying they have taken over the reversionary interest in the property. Attached was a demand for arrears of ground rent dating back to 1994. The conveyancing solicitor in Fitzrovia who previously acted has now retired.What should I do?

First make enquiries of HMLR to make sure that the individual claiming to own the freehold is in fact the new freeholder. It is not necessary to incur the fees of a Fitzrovia conveyancing solicitor to do this as it can be done on-line for less than a fiver. Rest assured that regardless, even if this is the rightful freeholder, under the Limitation Act 1980 the limitation period for recovery of ground rent is six years.

I've recently bought a leasehold house in Fitzrovia. Do I have any liability for service charges relating to a period prior to my ownership?

In a situation 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 be sure 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 busy estate agent office in Fitzrovia where we have witnessed a number of flat sales put at risk due to short leases. I have received conflicting advice from local Fitzrovia conveyancing firms. Please can you confirm whether the owner of a flat can commence the lease extension process for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

Provided that the seller has been the owner 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. This means that the buyer need not have to wait 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done prior to, 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.

Having spent months of negotiations we simply can't agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in Fitzrovia. Does the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal have jurisdiction to calculate the appropriate figures?

Where there is a missing freeholder or where there is dispute about what the lease extension should cost, under the relevant legislation you can apply to the LVT to make a decision on the price.

An example of a Freehold Enfranchisement decision for a Fitzrovia property is 20 Avonwick Road in July 2013. The Tribunal was dealing with an application under Section 26 of the Leasehold Reform Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 for a determination of the freehold value of the property. It was concluded that the price to be paid was Fifteen Thousand Nine Hundred and Seventy (£15,970) divided as to £8,200 for Flat 20 and £7,770 for Flat 20A This case related to 1 flat. The unexpired term was 73.26 years.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Fitzrovia