I am in need of some leasehold conveyancing in Hampstead Garden Suburb. Before diving in I require certainty as to the unexpired term of the lease.

Assuming the lease is registered - and 99.9% are in Hampstead Garden Suburb - 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.

There are only 72 years remaining on my lease in Hampstead Garden Suburb. I now want to get lease extension but my landlord is absent. What should I do?

On the basis that you qualify, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply 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. However, you will be required to demonstrate that you or your lawyers have used your best endeavours to locate the lessor. On the whole a specialist would be useful to try and locate and prepare a report to be used as proof that the freeholder is indeed missing. It is wise to seek advice from a solicitor in relation to investigating the landlord’s disappearance and the vesting order request to the County Court covering Hampstead Garden Suburb.

I’m about to sell my basement flat in Hampstead Garden Suburb.Conveyancing is yet to be initiated but I have just received a yearly maintenance charge invoice – what should I do?

It best that you 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 managing agents 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. Having a clear account will assist your cause and will leave you no worse off financially.

Our conveyancer has advised that he intends to complete and exchange simultaneously on the sale of our £125000 garden flat in Hampstead Garden Suburb in just under a week. The landlords agents has quoted £324 for Landlord’s certificate, insurance certificate and previous years statements of service charge. Is the landlord entitled to charge exorbitant fees for a leasehold conveyance in Hampstead Garden Suburb?

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

• Answering pre-contract questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Hampstead Garden Suburb
• Supplying insurance information
• Deeds of covenant upon sale
• Registering of the assignment of the change of lessee after a sale

Your solicitor will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for Hampstead Garden Suburb leasehold premises is £350. For Hampstead Garden Suburb 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 supply answers.

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

if there is a absentee freeholder or where there is disagreement about what the lease extension should cost, under the relevant statutes you can apply to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) to determine the premium.

An example of a Lease Extension case for a Hampstead Garden Suburb property is FFF, 37 and Garage 1, Queensborough Court North Circular Road in September 2012. The Tribunal determined that the premium for the lease extension should be £67,037 This case related to 1 flat. The remaining number of years on the lease was 23.66 years.

What makes a Hampstead Garden Suburb lease defective?

Leasehold conveyancing in Hampstead Garden Suburb is not unique. All leases is drafted differently and legal mistakes in the legal wording can result in certain provisions are not included. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:

• A provision to repair to or maintain elements of the property
• A duty to insure the building
• A provision for the recovery of money spent for the benefit of another party.
• Service charge per centages that don't add up correctly leaving a shortfall

You may encounter a problem when selling your property if you have a defective lease primarily because it impacts on the ability to obtain a mortgage on the property. Lloyds TSB Bank, Norwich and Peterborough Building Society, and TSB all have very detailed conveyancing instructions when it comes to what is expected in a lease. If a mortgage lender believes that the lease does not cover certain provisions they may refuse to grant the mortgage, forcing the purchaser to withdraw.