I am on look out for some leasehold conveyancing in Ladywell. Before diving in I would like to find out the remaining lease term.

Assuming the lease is registered - and most are in Ladywell - 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 am looking at a two maisonettes in Ladywell which have in the region of fifty years left on the leases. should I be concerned?

There are no two ways about it. A leasehold apartment in Ladywell is a deteriorating asset as a result of the reducing lease term. The nearer the lease gets to its expiry date, the more it adversely affects the marketability of the property. The majority of buyers and banks, leases with under 75 years become less and less marketable. On a more upbeat note, leaseholders can extend their leases by serving a Section 42 Notice. One stipulation is that they must have owned the premises for two years (unlike a Section 13 notice for purchasing the freehold, when leaseholders can participate from day one of ownership). When successful, they will have the right to an extension of 90 years to the current term and ground rent is effectively reduced to zero. Before moving forward with a purchase of a residence with a short lease term remaining you should talk to a solicitor specialising in lease extensions and leasehold enfranchisement. We are are happy to put you in touch with Ladywell conveyancing experts who will explain the options available to you during an initial telephone conversation free of charge. A more straightforward and quicker method of extending would be to contact your landlord directly and sound him out on the prospect of extending the lease You may find he or she is happy to negotiate informally and willing to consider your offer straight off, without having to involve anyone else. This will save you time and money and it could help you reach a lower price on the lease. You need to ensure that any new terms represent good long-term value compared with the standard benefits of the Section 42 Notice and that onerous clauses are not inserted into any redrafting of the lease.

I work for a busy estate agency in Ladywell where we have experienced a number of leasehold sales put at risk due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have received conflicting advice from local Ladywell conveyancing solicitors. Please can you shed some light as to whether the vendor 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. The benefit of this is that the proposed purchaser need not have to wait 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed 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.

Can you provide any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Ladywell from the point of view of speeding up the sale process?

• Much of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Ladywell can be bypassed where you instruct lawyers as soon as your agents start marketing the property and ask them to put together the leasehold information needed by the purchasers’ conveyancers.
• If you have carried out any alterations to the residence would they have required Landlord’s permission? Have you, for example laid down wooden flooring? Most leases in Ladywell state that internal structural changes or addition of wooden flooring require a licence from the Landlord acquiescing to such changes. Where you dont have the consents in place you should not contact the landlord without checking with your conveyancer first.
• If there is a history of any disputes with your freeholder or managing agents it is essential that these are resolved before the property is marketed. The buyers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a property where there is an ongoing dispute. You may need to swallow your pride and discharge any arrears of service charge or settle the dispute prior to completion of the sale. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled ahead of the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You are still duty bound to disclose particulars of the dispute to the buyers, but it is better to reveal the dispute as historic as opposed to ongoing.
• If you hold a share in a the Management Company, you should ensure that you are holding the original share document. Obtaining a new share certificate can be a lengthy process and slows down many a Ladywell conveyancing deal. If a duplicate share certificate is required, you should approach the company officers or managing agents (where applicable) for this sooner rather than later.
• You believe that you know the number of years remaining on your lease but you should double-check via your solicitors. A purchaser's lawyer will be unlikely to recommend their client to where the remaining number of years is below 75 years. In the circumstances it is essential at an as soon as possible that you consider whether the lease requires a lease extension. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your property on the market for sale.

Completion in due on our sale of a £ 400000 flat in Ladywell in six days. The landlords agents has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Landlord’s certificate, insurance certificate and 3 years service charge statements. Is the landlord entitled to charge an administration fee for a flat conveyance in Ladywell?

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

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

Your lawyer will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for Ladywell leasehold premises is £350. For Ladywell 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.

I am the leaseholder of a basement flat in Ladywell. In the absence of agreement between myself and the landlord, can the Leasehold valuation Tribunal determine the sum due for the purchase of the freehold?

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

An example of a Freehold Enfranchisement decision for a Ladywell premises is 44 Elmer Road in January 2013. The Tribunal dacied that amount to be paid by the Leaseholders for the Landlords freehold reversion was £12,951 as at the valuation date (20" September 2012).This matter was referred back to the Bromley County Court to deal with costs, fees and any other outstanding matters. This case was in relation to 2 flats. The the unexpired term as at the valuation date was 74.25 years.

Ladywell Leasehold Conveyancing - A selection of Queries before Purchasing

How much is the service charge and ground rent on the flat? If a Ladywell lease has less than 80 years it will impact the salability of the flat. It is worth checking with your lender that they are willing to to proceed given the lease term. Leases with less than 80 years remaining means that you will almost definitely need a lease extension sooner rather than later and it is worth discovering what this would cost. Remember, in most cases you will need to own the property for two years before you are entitled to extend the lease. In the main the outlay for major works tend not to be incorporated into the service charges, albeit that a few managing agents in Ladywell ask tenants to contribute towards a sinking fund created for the specific intention of establishing a fund for larger works.