I am on look out for some leasehold conveyancing in Holland Park. Before diving in I would like to find out the number of years remaining on the lease.

If the lease is registered - and most are in Holland Park - 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 have recently realised that I have Sixty One years left on my flat in Holland Park. I need to get lease extension but my landlord is absent. What are my options?

If you qualify, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can submit an application to the County Court for an order to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will mean that your lease can be granted an extra 90 years by the Court. However, you will be required to demonstrate that you or your lawyers have done all that could be expected to locate the freeholder. In some cases a specialist would be helpful to try and locate and to produce a report to be accepted by the court as proof that the landlord is indeed missing. It is advisable to get professional help from a property lawyer in relation to investigating the landlord’s disappearance and the vesting order request to the County Court overseeing Holland Park.

I own a leasehold flat in Holland Park. Conveyancing and National Westminster Bank mortgage organised. I have received a letter from someone claiming to own the reversionary interest in the property. Attached was a ground rent demand for rent dating back to 1993. The conveyancing solicitor in Holland Park who previously acted has long since retired.What should I do?

The first thing you should do is make enquiries of the Land Registry to make sure that the individual purporting to own the freehold is indeed the new freeholder. It is not necessary to incur the fees of a Holland Park conveyancing practitioner to do this as you can do this on the Land Registry website for £3. You should note that regardless, even if this is the rightful landlord, under the Limitation Act 1980 no more than 6 years of rent can be collected.

Completion in due on the sale of our £150000 apartment in Holland Park on Monday in a week. The freeholder has quoted £384 for Landlord’s certificate, building insurance schedule and previous years service charge statements. Is the landlord entitled to charge exorbitant fees for a leasehold conveyance in Holland Park?

For most leasehold sales in Holland Park conveyancing will involve, queries regarding the management of a building inevitably needing to be answered directly by the freeholder or its agent, this includes :

• Answering conveyancing due diligence questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Holland Park
• Copies of the building insurance and schedule
• 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 Holland Park leasehold property is £350. For Holland Park 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 the information.

I am the registered owner of a a ground floor purpose built flat in Holland Park. Given that I can not reach agreement with the freeholder, can the Leasehold valuation Tribunal determine the premium payable for the purchase of the freehold?

in cases where there is a absentee freeholder or if there is dispute about what the lease extension should cost, under the relevant statutes you can apply to the LVT to judgment on the price.

An example of a Lease Extension case for a Holland Park premises is 93 Oakwood Court in June 2010. the LVT determined that the premium to be paid for the new lease was £492,083, This case affected 1 flat. The the number of years remaining on the existing lease(s) was 37.79 years.

When it comes to leasehold conveyancing in Holland Park what are the most common lease problems?

Leasehold conveyancing in Holland Park is not unique. All leases is drafted differently and drafting errors can sometimes mean that certain sections are erroneous. The following missing provisions could result in a defective lease:

• Repairing obligations to or maintain elements of the premises
• A duty to insure the building
• Clauses dealing with recovering service charges for expenditure on the building or common parts.
• Maintenance charge proportions which don’t add up to the correct percentage

You will have 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, Coventry Building Society, and Bank of Ireland all have express requirements when it comes to what is expected in a lease. If a mortgage lender believes that the lease is defective they may refuse to grant the mortgage, obliging the purchaser to withdraw.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Holland Park