I am in need of some leasehold conveyancing in Hainault. Before diving in I would like to find out the remaining lease term.

If the lease is registered - and 99.9% are in Hainault - then the leasehold title will always include the short particulars of the lease, namely the date; the term; and the original parties. From a conveyancing perspective such details then enable any prospective buyer and lender to confirm that any lease they are looking at is the one relevant to that title.For any other purpose, such as confirming how long the term was granted for and calculating what is left, then the register should be sufficient on it's own.

I would like to sublet my leasehold apartment in Hainault. Conveyancing solicitor who did the purchase is retired - so can't ask her. Do I need to ask my freeholder for their consent?

Notwithstanding that your previous Hainault conveyancing lawyer is not available you can review your lease to see if you are permitted to let out the property. The rule is that if the deeds are silent, subletting is permitted. There may be a precondition that you need to obtain consent from your landlord or other appropriate person prior to subletting. This means that you cannot sublet in the absence of prior permission. The consent should not be unreasonably refused ore delayed. If the lease prohibits you from subletting the property you will need to ask your landlord if they are willing to waive this restriction.

Having checked my lease I have discovered that there are only Sixty One years unexpired on my flat in Hainault. I am keen to extend my lease but my landlord is can not be found. What options are available to me?

If you meet the appropriate requirements, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can submit an application to the County Court for for permission to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will mean that your lease can be granted an extra 90 years by the magistrate. You will be obliged to demonstrate that you or your lawyers have used your best endeavours to track down the landlord. In some cases a specialist may be helpful to conduct investigations and prepare an expert document which can be used as evidence that the landlord can not be located. It is wise to seek advice from a conveyancer in relation to investigating the landlord’s absence and the application to the County Court covering Hainault.

Looking forward to sign contracts shortly on a ground floor flat in Hainault. Conveyancing solicitors assured me that they will have a report out to me on Monday. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?

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

• Setting out your legal entitlements in relation to common areas in the building.By way of example, does the lease provide for a right of way over an accessway or staircase?
• You should be told what constitutes a Nuisance in the lease
• Whether your lease has a provision for a sinking fund?
• I don't know whether the lease allows me to alter or improve anything in the flat - you should know whether it applies to all alterations or just structural alteration, and whether consent is required
• Responsibility for repairing the window frames
• What you can do if a neighbour breach a clause of their lease?

I am employed by a long established estate agent office in Hainault where we have witnessed a number of flat sales derailed due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have received contradictory information from local Hainault conveyancing solicitors. Please can you shed some light as to whether the vendor of a flat can instigate the lease extension formalities for the buyer?

As long as the seller has owned the lease 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. The benefit of this is that the proposed purchaser need not have to sit tight for 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed before, or at the same time as completion of the sale.

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.

We have reached the end of our tether in trying to purchase the freehold in Hainault. Can this matter be resolved via the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal?

Most certainly. We are happy to put you in touch with a Hainault conveyancing firm who can help.

An example of a Freehold Enfranchisement case for a Hainault premises is 201 & 201a St. Barnabas Road in October 2013. The Tribunal decided that the price to be paid by the Applicants for the freehold interest is £20,071. This case was in relation to 2 flats. The unexpired lease term was 69.26 years.

I acquired a 1st floor flat in Hainault, conveyancing formalities finalised 3 years ago. How much will my lease extension cost? Equivalent properties in Hainault with over 90 years remaining are worth £193,000. The ground rent is £65 per annum. The lease terminates on 21st October 2085

With 59 years remaining on your lease we estimate the premium for your lease extension to span between £25,700 and £29,600 plus costs.

The figure that we have given is a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we cannot give you the actual costs in the absence of detailed investigations. You should not use the figures in tribunal or court proceedings. There may be other concerns that need to be taken into account and you obviously should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Neither should you take any other action based on this information before getting professional advice.