I am in need of some leasehold conveyancing in Lower Morden. Before I get started I would like to find out the number of years remaining on the lease.

If the lease is registered - and 99.9% are in Lower Morden - 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.

Can you offer any advice when it comes to choosing a Lower Morden conveyancing firm to carry out our lease extension conveyancing?

When appointing a conveyancer for your lease extension (regardless if they are a Lower Morden conveyancing practice) it is most important that he or she should be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of work. We recommend that you speak with two or three firms including non Lower Morden conveyancing practices prior to instructing a firm. If the firm is ALEP accredited then so much the better. Some following of questions might be useful:

• How many lease extensions has the firm completed in Lower Morden in the last twenty four months?
• Can they put you in touch with client in Lower Morden who can give a testimonial?

Do you have any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Lower Morden from the perspective of expediting the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Lower Morden can be bypassed if you appoint lawyers as soon as your agents start marketing the property and request that they start to collate the leasehold information needed by the purchasers’ conveyancers.
• A minority of Lower Morden leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. 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 should make it clear that the buyer is 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 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 freeholder or managing agents it is essential that these are settled prior to the flat being marketed. The purchasers and their solicitors will be nervous about purchasing a flat where there is an ongoing dispute. You may need to swallow your pride and pay any arrears of service charge or resolve the dispute prior to completion of the sale. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled prior to the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You will still have to reveal particulars of the dispute to the purchasers, but it is better to reveal the dispute as historic rather than unresolved.
• If you hold a share in a the freehold, you should make sure that you have the original share document. Arranging a new share certificate can be a time consuming process and slows down many a Lower Morden conveyancing transaction. Where a reissued share is required, you should approach the company director and secretary or managing agents (if relevant) for this as soon as possible.
• You believe that you know the number of years left on your lease but it would be advisable double-check via your lawyers. A purchaser's lawyer will not be happy to advise their client to proceed with the purchase of a leasehold property the remaining number of years is less than 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 property on the market for sale.

We expect to complete our sale of a £ 400000 flat in Lower Morden in 5 days. The management company has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Landlord’s certificate, building insurance schedule and previous years service charge statements. Is the landlord entitled to charge exorbitant fees for a leasehold conveyance in Lower Morden?

Lower Morden conveyancing on leasehold maisonettes ordinarily necessitates fees being invoiced by managing agents :

• Addressing pre-exchange enquiries
• Where consent is required before sale in Lower Morden
• Supplying insurance information
• Deeds of covenant upon sale
• Registering of the assignment of the change of lessee after a sale

Your solicitor will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for Lower Morden leasehold premises is £350. For Lower Morden 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 provide the information.

I own a two-bedroom flat in Lower Morden. In the absence of agreement between myself and the freeholder, can the Leasehold valuation Tribunal determine the amount payable for a lease extension?

Where there is a missing freeholder or where there is dispute about what the lease extension should cost, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal to arrive at the price.

An example of a Lease Extension decision for a Lower Morden residence is 33 The Maisonettes Alberta Avenue in June 2014. the Tribunal decided that the premium payable for the grant of a new lease be the sum of £20,680 (Twenty Thousand six hundred and eighty pounds). This case was in relation to 1 flat. The remaining number of years on the lease was 60.43 years.

When it comes to leasehold conveyancing in Lower Morden what are the most frequent lease problems?

Leasehold conveyancing in Lower Morden is not unique. All leases is drafted differently and drafting errors can sometimes mean that certain sections are erroneous. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:

• Repairing obligations to or maintain parts of the property
• Insurance obligations
• Clauses dealing with recovering service charges for expenditure on the building or common parts.
• Service charge per centages that don't add up correctly leaving a shortfall

A defective lease can cause issues when trying to sell a property primarily because it impacts on the ability to obtain a mortgage on the property. Nationwide Building Society, Leeds Building Society, and Alliance & Leicester all have very detailed requirements when it comes to what is expected in a lease. If a mortgage lender believes that the lease is defective they may refuse to grant the mortgage, forcing the purchaser to pull out.

I inherited a leasehold flat in Lower Morden, conveyancing was carried out 2007. Can you please calculate a probable premium for a statutory lease extension? Comparable properties in Lower Morden with over 90 years remaining are worth £201,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £45 invoiced every year. The lease finishes on 21st October 2078

With only 52 years remaining on your lease the likely cost is going to be between £29,500 and £34,000 plus legals.

The figure above a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we cannot give you the actual costs in the absence of comprehensive due diligence. You should not use the figures in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There may be additional concerns that need to be taken into account and you obviously want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Neither should you take any other action based on this information before seeking the advice of a professional.