I’m about to sell my ground floor flat in Ickenham.Conveyancing is yet to be initiated but I have just received a yearly service charge demand – should I leave it to the buyer to sort out?

The sensible thing to do is discharge 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. This will smooth the conveyancing process.

Last month I purchased a leasehold property in Ickenham. Am I liable to pay service charges for periods before my ownership?

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. However, 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 am a negotiator for a busy estate agency in Ickenham where we have witnessed a few flat sales jeopardised due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have received inconsistent advice from local Ickenham conveyancing solicitors. Please can you confirm whether the seller of a flat can instigate the lease extension formalities for the buyer?

Provided that the seller has owned the lease for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. This means that the buyer can avoid having to sit tight for 2 years for a lease extension. 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.

Can you provide any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Ickenham with the aim of saving time on the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Ickenham can be bypassed where you appoint lawyers the minute your agents start marketing the property and request that they start to put together the leasehold documentation needed by the buyers lawyers.
• If you have carried out any alterations to the premises would they have required Landlord’s consent? Have you, for example installed wooden flooring? Ickenham leases often stipulate that internal structural changes or laying down wooden flooring calls for a licence issued by the Landlord acquiescing to such changes. Should you fail to have the consents to hand you should not contact the landlord without contacting your lawyer in the first instance.
• A minority of Ickenham leases require Landlord’s consent to the sale and approval of the buyers. If this is the case, you should place the estate agents on notice to make sure that the purchasers put in hand financial (bank) and professional references. The bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are financially capable of paying the annual service charge and the actual amount of the service charge should be quoted in the bank’s letter. You will therefore need to provide your estate agents with the service charge figures so that they can pass this information on to the buyers or their solicitors.
• If you have had conflict with your landlord or managing agents it is essential that these are resolved before the property is put on the market. The purchasers and their solicitors will be nervous about purchasing a flat where there is a current dispute. You may need to swallow your pride and pay any arrears of service charge or resolve the dispute prior to the buyers completing the purchase. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled ahead of the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You will still have to reveal details of the dispute to the purchasers, but it is clearly preferable to reveal the dispute as over rather than unresolved.
• You believe that you know the number of years remaining on your lease but it would be wise to verify this by asking your conveyancers. A purchaser's lawyer will be unlikely to recommend their client to to exchange contracts if the lease term is less than 75 years. It is therefore essential at an as soon as possible that you identify whether the lease term requires a lease extension. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your home on the market for sale.

Our conveyancer has advised that he intends to complete and exchange simultaneously on the sale of our £ 450000 apartment in Ickenham next Friday . The freeholder has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Landlord’s certificate, insurance certificate and 3 years service charge statements. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge such fees for a flat conveyance in Ickenham?

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

• Addressing pre-exchange questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Ickenham
• 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 Ickenham leasehold property is £350. For Ickenham 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 obliged to supply the information.

Having spent months of correspondence we simply can't agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in Ickenham. Can we issue an application to the Residential Property Tribunal Service?

in cases where there is a absentee landlord or if there is dispute about what the lease extension should cost, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 it is possible to make an application to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) to determine the amount due.

An example of a Lease Extension decision for a Ickenham premises is Flat 72 Queens Walk in January 2013. The Tribunals calculated the premium payable to be £22,090. This case affected 1 flat. The the unexpired residue of the current lease was 53.26 years.

Leasehold Conveyancing in Ickenham - A selection of Queries before Purchasing

This question is important as a) areas may cause problems for the block as the common areas may start to deteriorate where services are not paid for b) if the leasehold owners have a dispute with the managing agents you will wish to know about it You should want to find out as much as you can concerning the company managing the building as they can either make your living at the property much easier or problematic. As the owner of a leasehold property you will be at the mercy of the managing agents both financially and when it comes to day to day matters such as the upkeep of the communal areas. Enquire of prospective neighbours what they think of their service. In conclusion, find out the dates that the maintenance fees are due to the managing agents and precisely how they are spending that money.