I only have 62 years remaining on my flat in Lampton. I now wish to extend my lease but my freeholder is absent. 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 enable the lease to be granted an extra 90 years by the magistrate. However, you will be required to prove that you or your lawyers have done all that could be expected to locate the landlord. On the whole an enquiry agent may be useful to try and locate and prepare a report which can be accepted by the court as evidence that the landlord can not be located. It is wise to seek advice from a conveyancer in relation to devolving into the landlord’s disappearance and the application to the County Court covering Lampton.

Looking forward to sign contracts shortly on a ground floor flat in Lampton. Conveyancing solicitors assured me that they report fully next week. What should I be looking out for?

Your report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in Lampton should include some of the following:

• How long the lease is You should be advised as what happens when the lease expires, and informed of the importance of not letting the lease term falling below eighty years

Details of the parties to the lease, for example these could be the leaseholder (you), head lessor, landlord

Does the lease prevent you from renting out the property, or working from home

An explanation as to the provision in the lease to pay service charges - with regard to both the building, and the more general rights a leaseholder has

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

The landlord’s obligations to repair and maintain the building. It is important that you know who is responsible for the repair and maintenance of every part of the building For a comprehensive list of information to be included in your report on your leasehold property in Lampton please enquire of your lawyer in ahead of your conveyancing in Lampton

My wife and I purchased a leasehold flat in Lampton. Conveyancing and Chelsea Building Society mortgage are in place. I have received a letter from someone saying they have taken over the freehold. It included a demand for arrears of ground rent dating back to 1993. The conveyancing practitioner in Lampton who previously acted has long since retired.Do I pay?

The first thing you should do is make enquiries of the Land Registry to make sure that the individual claiming to own the freehold is in fact the registered owner of the freehold reversion. You do not need to instruct a Lampton conveyancing firm to do this as it can be done on-line for less than a fiver. You should note that in any event, even if this is the rightful landlord, under the Limitation Act 1980 no more than 6 years of rent can be collected.

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

• Much of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Lampton can be avoided where you instruct lawyers as soon as you market your property and request that they start to collate the leasehold documentation which will be required by the purchasers’ solicitors.
• The majority landlords or Management Companies in Lampton levy fees for supplying management packs for a leasehold premises. You or your lawyers should discover the fee that they propose to charge. The management pack can be applied for on or before finding a buyer, thus accelerating the process. The typical amount of time it takes to obtain the necessary information is three weeks. It is the most frequent reason for delay in leasehold conveyancing in Lampton.

In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s consent? In particular have you installed wooden flooring? Lampton leases often stipulate that internal structural alterations or installing wooden flooring calls for a licence from the Landlord consenting to such works. If you fail to have the paperwork to hand you should not communicate with the landlord without contacting your lawyer in advance.

If you have had conflict with your freeholder or managing agents it is essential that these are resolved prior to the flat being put on the market. The buyers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a property where there is a current dispute. You will have to accept that you will have to pay any arrears of service charge or settle the dispute prior to the buyers completing the purchase. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled prior to 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 clearly preferable to reveal the dispute as historic as opposed to unsettled.

You may think that you are aware of the number of years remaining on your lease but you should double-check by asking your conveyancers. A buyer’s conveyancer will be unlikely to recommend their client to where the remaining number of years is under 75 years. It is therefore essential at an early stage that you identify whether the lease for your property needs extending. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your home on the market for sale.

All being well we will complete the sale of our £425000 garden flat in Lampton in seven days. The landlords agents has quoted £420 for Certificate of Compliance, building insurance schedule and previous years service charge statements. Is the landlord entitled to charge exorbitant fees for a leasehold conveyance in Lampton?

Lampton conveyancing on leasehold apartments typically necessitates administration charges invoiced by management companies :

• Answering pre-contract enquiries
• Where consent is required before sale in Lampton
• 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 lawyer will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for Lampton leasehold premises is £350. For Lampton 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 answers.

Having spent years of dialogue we cannot agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in Lampton. Can we issue an application to the Residential Property Tribunal Service?

Absolutely. We are happy to put you in touch with a Lampton conveyancing firm who can help.

An example of a Lease Extension decision for a Lampton flat is Ground Floor Flat 91 Bath Road in May 2009. in a case where the freeholder could not be traced, the Brentford County Court ordered that the Lease be surrendered in return for the grant of a new lease of the Premises at a premium determined by the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal. The tribunal concluded that the price payable by the Applicant for the new lease of the premises be £15,900 This case was in relation to 1 flat. The the unexpired residue of the current lease was 60.45 years.