I wish to let out my leasehold apartment in Lee. Conveyancing solicitor who did the purchase is retired - so can't ask her. Is permission from the freeholder required?

Notwithstanding that your previous Lee conveyancing lawyer is not available you can check your lease to see if it allows you to sublet the property. The accepted inference is that if the lease is non-specific, subletting is permitted. There may be a precondition that you need to seek consent from your landlord or other appropriate person before subletting. The net result is you not allowed to sublet in the absence of prior permission. Such consent is not allowed to be unreasonably turned down. If the lease prohibits you from subletting the property you should ask your landlord if they are willing to waive this restriction.

Expecting to sign contracts shortly on a ground floor flat in Lee. Conveyancing lawyers assured me that they are sending me a report next week. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?

The report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in Lee should include some of the following:

• You should receive a copy of the lease

Setting out your legal entitlements in relation to the communal areas in the building.For example, does the lease include a right of way over an accessway or hallways?

Do you need to have carpet in the flat or are you allowed wood flooring?

Will you be prohibited or prevented from having pets in the property?

Ground rent - how much and when you need to pay, and also know whether this is subject to change

Whether your lease has a provision for a sinking fund?

What options are open to you if a neighbour breach a clause of their lease? For details of the information to be contained in your report on your leasehold property in Lee please ask your solicitor in advance of your conveyancing in Lee

I've recently bought a leasehold house in Lee. Am I liable to pay service charges relating to a period prior to completion of my purchase?

Where the service charge has already been demanded from the previous lessee 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 ensure 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).

Do you have any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Lee from the perspective of speeding up the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Lee can be bypassed where you appoint lawyers as soon as you market your property and request that they start to collate the leasehold information which will be required by the purchasers’ lawyers.
• In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s consent? Have you, for example installed wooden flooring? Most leases in Lee state that internal structural changes or installing wooden flooring necessitate a licence from the Landlord approving such works. If you fail to have the consents to hand you should not communicate with the landlord without contacting your conveyancer in the first instance.

Some Lee leases require Landlord’s consent to the sale and approval of the buyers. If this is the case, you should notify your estate agents to make sure that the purchasers put in hand bank and professional references. Any bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are able to meet 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 actual amount of the service charge so that they can pass this information on to the purchasers or their lawyers.

If there is a history of conflict with your landlord or managing agents it is essential that these are settled before the property is put on the market. The purchasers and their solicitors will be concerned about purchasing a flat where a dispute is unsettled. You may have to bite the bullet 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 prior to the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You are still duty bound to disclose particulars of the dispute to the purchasers, but it is better to present the dispute as historic as opposed to unsettled.

You believe that you know the number of years left on your lease but it would be wise to verify this by asking your lawyers. A buyer’s lawyer will not be happy to advise their client to to exchange contracts if the lease term is below 80 years. It is therefore important 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.

All being well we will complete our sale of a £125000 maisonette in Lee next week. The landlords agents has quoted £384 for Landlord’s certificate, building insurance schedule and previous years service charge statements. Is the landlord entitled to charge an administration fee for a leasehold conveyance in Lee?

Lee conveyancing on leasehold maisonettes ordinarily results in administration charges levied by freeholders :

• Addressing pre-contract questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Lee
• 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 Lee leasehold premises is £350. For Lee 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 supply answers.

I inherited a garden flat in Lee. Given that I can not reach agreement with the landlord, can the Leasehold valuation Tribunal determine the premium due for a lease extension?

Where there is a missing landlord or where 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 Leasehold Valuation Tribunal to assess the price.

An example of a Freehold Enfranchisement decision for a Lee property is 18 Handen Road in April 2013. On 26 October 2012 District Judge Zimmels sitting at the Lambeth County Court made a Vesting Order that the Applicants be granted the right to acquire the freehold upon such terms and at such price determined by the LVT. The Tribunal arrived a figure of £39,535 as a valuation for the enfranchisement. This case related to 3 flats. The unexpired term was 69.05 years.