Having had my offer accepted I require leasehold conveyancing in Leaves Green. Before I set the wheels in motion I require certainty as to the remaining lease term.

If the lease is registered - and almost all are in Leaves Green - then the leasehold title will always include the basic details 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.

My wife and I may need to let out our Leaves Green ground floor flat for a while due to a new job. We instructed a Leaves Green conveyancing practice in 2004 but they have since shut and we did not have the foresight to get any guidance as to whether the lease permits subletting. How do we find out?

Notwithstanding that your previous Leaves Green conveyancing lawyer is not around you can review your lease to see if you are permitted to let out the property. The accepted inference is that if the deeds are silent, subletting is permitted. Quite often there is a prerequisite that you need to seek permission from your landlord or other appropriate person before subletting. This means you not allowed to sublet without prior consent. The consent is not allowed to be unreasonably withheld. If the lease does not allow you to sublet you will need to ask your landlord if they are willing to waive this restriction.

I only have Seventy years left on my lease in Leaves Green. I now want to get lease extension but my freeholder is missing. What options are available to me?

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 lengthened by the Court. However, you will be required to prove that you have made all reasonable attempts to track down the landlord. In some cases a specialist should be useful to try and locate and to produce a report to be used as proof that the freeholder is indeed missing. It is wise to seek advice from a conveyancer both on devolving into the landlord’s absence and the vesting order request to the County Court covering Leaves Green.

I am employed by a busy estate agent office in Leaves Green where we see a number of leasehold sales jeopardised as a result of leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have received conflicting advice from local Leaves Green conveyancing firms. Please can you shed some light as to whether the vendor of a flat can commence the lease extension formalities 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. This means that the proposed purchaser can avoid having to wait 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done before, or simultaneously with completion of the sale.

An alternative approach is 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 buyer.

Following years of negotiations we simply can't agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in Leaves Green. Can we issue an application to the Residential Property Tribunal Service?

Where there is a absentee landlord or where there is dispute about the premium for a lease extension, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) to decide the price payable.

An example of a Lease Extension case for a Leaves Green flat is 1 Southlands Court Southlands Road in September 2013. The Leasehold Valuation Tribunal determined that the premium to be paid by the tenant on the grant of a new lease, in accordance with section 56 and Schedule 13 of the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 was £30,541 This case related to 1 flat. The the unexpired term as at the valuation date was 50.57 years.

What are the frequently found defects that you encounter in leases for Leaves Green properties?

Leasehold conveyancing in Leaves Green is not unique. All leases are individual and legal mistakes in the legal wording can result in certain clauses are missing. The following missing provisions could result in a defective lease:

• Repairing obligations to or maintain parts of the property
• Insurance obligations
• A provision for the recovery of money spent for the benefit of another party.
• 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. Nationwide Building Society, The Mortgage Works, and Aldermore all have very detailed requirements when it comes to what is expected in a lease. Where a lender has been advised by their lawyers that the lease is defective they may refuse to grant the mortgage, forcing the buyer to withdraw.

I own a garden flat in Leaves Green, conveyancing having been completed in 1995. Can you let me have an estimate of the premium that my landlord can legally expect in return for granting a renewal of my lease? Similar flats in Leaves Green with over 90 years remaining are worth £202,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £45 charged once a year. The lease expires on 21st October 2100

With 74 years unexpired the likely cost is going to be between £11,400 and £13,200 plus legals.

The figure that we have given is a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we cannot give you the actual costs in the absence of comprehensive due diligence. Do not use the figures in tribunal or court proceedings. There may be other issues that need to be considered and clearly you should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Please do not take any other action placing reliance on this information without first getting professional advice.