My wife and I may need to sub-let our Mill Hill garden flat temporarily due to taking a sabbatical. We instructed a Mill Hill conveyancing firm in 2004 but they have closed and we did not think at the time get any advice as to whether the lease permits subletting. How do we find out?

Notwithstanding that your last Mill Hill 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 non-specific, subletting is allowed. There may be a precondition that you are obliged to seek consent via your landlord or some other party before subletting. This means you not allowed to sublet without prior consent. Such consent must not not be unreasonably refused ore delayed. If your lease prohibits you from letting out the property you should ask your landlord for their consent.

Expecting to complete next month on a garden flat in Mill Hill. Conveyancing solicitors assured me that they will have a report out to me on Monday. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?

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

• The unexpired lease term You should be advised as what happens when the lease ends, and informed of the importance of not letting the lease term falling below eighty years
• Defining your rights in respect of common areas in the building.By way of example, does the lease provide for a right of way over an accessway or staircase?
• Ground rent - how much and when you need to pay, and also know whether this will change in the future
• Repair and maintenance of the flat
• Responsibility for repairing the window frames
• What you can do if a neighbour is in violation of a provision in their lease?

I am attracted to a couple of flats in Mill Hill which have about 50 years left on the lease term. Will this present a problem?

A lease is a legal document that entitles you to use the premises for a prescribed time frame. As a lease gets shorter the saleability of the lease deteriorate and it becomes more costly to extend the lease. For this reason it is advisable to increase the term of the lease. It is often difficulties arise selling premises with a short lease as mortgage lenders less inclined to grant a loan on properties of this type. Lease enfranchisement can be a protracted process. We recommend you seek professional assistance from a solicitor and surveyor with experience in this arena

I've recently bought a leasehold house in Mill Hill. Do I have any liability for service charges for periods before completion of my purchase?

Where the service charge has already been demanded from the previous owner 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. It is an essential part of leasehold conveyancing for your conveyancer to be sure 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).

I work for a busy estate agency in Mill Hill where we see a few leasehold sales derailed due to short leases. I have been given contradictory information from local Mill Hill conveyancing solicitors. Could 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 owned the lease for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to commence the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. This means that the buyer need not have to sit tight for 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed before, 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.

I have tried to negotiate informally with with my landlord for a lease extension without getting anywhere. Can one apply to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal? Can you recommend a Mill Hill conveyancing firm to act on my behalf?

Where there is a absentee freeholder or where there is dispute about the premium for a lease extension, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 it is possible to make an application to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal to calculate the premium.

An example of a Lease Extension case for a Mill Hill property is Ground Floor Maisonette 17 Milton Road in January 2014. The Tribunal determined the premium payable by the Applicant to the should be £13,299 This case related to 1 flat. The unexpired lease term was 71.73 years.

Mill Hill Leasehold Conveyancing - Examples of Queries Prior to buying

You should be aware that where the lease has less than 80 years it will have adverse implications on the salability of the flat. It is worth checking with your lender that they are willing to lend given the lease term. A short lease means that you will most likely require a lease extension at some point and it is worth discovering what this would cost. Remember, in most cases you would need to own the residence for 24 months in order to be entitled to carry out a lease extension. What is the maintenance charge and ground rent on the property?