I am in need of some leasehold conveyancing in Mill Hill. Before I set the wheels in motion I require certainty as to the unexpired term of the lease.

If the lease is registered - and most are in Mill Hill - 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.

Jane (my partner) and I may need to sub-let our Mill Hill basement flat for a while due to taking a sabbatical. We used a Mill Hill conveyancing firm in 2004 but they have closed and we did not think at the time seek any advice as to whether the lease allows us to sublet. How do we find out?

Even though your last Mill Hill conveyancing lawyer is no longer around you can review your lease to check if you are permitted to let out the apartment. The accepted inference is that if the lease is non-specific, subletting is allowed. There may be a precondition that you must seek consent via your landlord or some other party in advance of subletting. This means you not allowed to sublet without prior consent. The consent should not be unreasonably withheld. If the lease prohibits you from subletting the property you will need to ask your landlord if they are willing to waive this restriction.

I only have Sixty One years left on my flat in Mill Hill. I now wish to extend my lease but my landlord is missing. What should I do?

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 granted an extra 90 years by the Court. However, you will be required to demonstrate that you have done all that could be expected to track down the landlord. On the whole an enquiry agent may be helpful to carry out a search and prepare a report to be accepted by the court as proof that the landlord can not be located. It is wise to seek advice from a conveyancer both on proving the landlord’s disappearance and the vesting order request to the County Court covering Mill Hill.

I am a negotiator for a long established estate agency in Mill Hill where we see a few flat sales put at risk as a result of short leases. I have received conflicting advice from local Mill Hill conveyancing solicitors. Can you confirm whether the owner of a flat can commence the lease extension formalities for the buyer?

As long as 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 sit tight for 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done before, or at the same time as completion of the disposal of the property.

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.

Can you provide any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Mill Hill from the point of view of expediting the sale process?

• Much of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Mill Hill can be bypassed if you instruct lawyers the minute you market your property and request that they start to put together the leasehold information needed by the purchasers’ representatives.
• The majority freeholders or managing agents in Mill Hill charge for providing 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 reducing delays. The average time it takes to receive management information is three weeks. It is the most usual reason for delay in leasehold conveyancing in Mill Hill.
• A minority of Mill Hill leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this applies to your lease, it would be prudent to notify your estate agents to make sure that the purchasers put in hand bank and professional references. Any bank reference should make it clear that the buyer is able to meet the yearly 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 any disputes with your landlord or managing agents it is essential that these are resolved prior to the flat being marketed. The purchasers and their solicitors will be concerned about purchasing a property where there is an ongoing dispute. You may need to swallow your pride and pay any arrears of service charge or settle 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 are still duty bound to disclose particulars of the dispute to the purchasers, but it is clearly preferable to reveal the dispute as historic rather than unresolved.
• You believe that you know the number of years remaining on your lease but it would be advisable verify this via your conveyancers. A buyer’s conveyancer will not be happy to advise their client to proceed with the purchase of a leasehold property the lease term is under 75 years. In the circumstances it is essential at an early stage that you identify whether the lease term requires a lease extension. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your property on the market for sale.

After months of negotiations we cannot agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in Mill Hill. Can we issue an application to the Residential Property Tribunal Service?

if there is a absentee landlord or where there is disagreement about the premium for a lease extension, under the relevant statutes it is possible to make an application to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) to decide the price.

An example of a Lease Extension decision for a Mill Hill residence 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 was in relation to 1 flat. The unexpired term was 71.73 years.

I own a 1st floor flat in Mill Hill, conveyancing having been completed 4 years ago. 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? Comparable properties in Mill Hill with an extended lease are worth £214,000. The ground rent is £50 yearly. The lease terminates on 21st October 2082

You have 56 years left to run the likely cost is going to span between £26,600 and £30,800 plus professional fees.

The figure above a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we cannot give you the actual costs in the absence of detailed due diligence. Do not use the figures in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There are no doubt other concerns that need to be taken into account and you obviously want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Please do not move forward placing reliance on this information without first seeking the advice of a professional.