My partner and I may need to rent out our Millbank 1st floor flat temporarily due to a new job. We instructed a Millbank conveyancing practice in 2002 but they have closed and we did not have the foresight to seek any advice as to whether the lease prohibits the subletting of the flat. How do we find out?

Your lease governs the relationship between the landlord and you the leaseholder; in particular, it will set out if subletting is prohibited, or permitted but only subject to certain conditions. The accepted inference is that if the lease contains no expres ban or restriction, subletting is allowed. Most leases in Millbank do not contain subletting altogether – such a provision would adversely affect the market value the property. In most cases there is simply a requirement that the owner notifies the freeholder, possibly supplying a copy of the tenancy agreement.

Due to complete next month on a ground floor flat in Millbank. Conveyancing lawyers have said that they will have a report out to me on Monday. What should I be looking out for?

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

• Setting out your legal entitlements in respect of the communal areas in the block.E.G., does the lease grant a right of way over an accessway or hallways?

Ground rent - how much and when you need to pay, and also know whether this will change in the future

Whether your lease has a provision for a sinking fund?

Repair and maintenance of the flat

Changes to the flat (alterations and additions)

Responsibility for repairing the window frames

What you can do if a neighbour is in violation of a provision in their lease? For a comprehensive list of information to be included in your report on your leasehold property in Millbank please ask your conveyancer in advance of your conveyancing in Millbank

I work for a long established estate agent office in Millbank where we have witnessed a number of leasehold sales put at risk due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given conflicting advice from local Millbank conveyancing solicitors. Can you confirm whether the owner of a flat can initiate the lease extension formalities for the buyer?

Provided that the seller has been the owner 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 can avoid having to wait 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed before, or simultaneously with 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 purchaser.

Can you provide any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Millbank from the point of view of speeding up the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Millbank can be bypassed where you instruct lawyers as soon as your agents start advertising the property and request that they start to put together the leasehold information needed by the buyers lawyers.
• The majority landlords or managing agents in Millbank charge for providing management packs for a leasehold premises. You or your lawyers should find out the fee that they propose to charge. The management information sought 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 frequent cause of delay in leasehold conveyancing in Millbank.

A minority of Millbank 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 obtain financial (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 service charge figures so that they can pass this information on to the buyers or their solicitors.

If there is a history of any disputes with your landlord or managing agents it is essential that these are resolved before the property is marketed. The purchasers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a flat where there is a current dispute. You will have to accept that you will have to discharge any arrears of service charge or settle the dispute prior to the buyers completing the purchase. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled ahead of 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 present the dispute as historic as opposed to unresolved.

If you are supposed to have a share in the Management Company, you should make sure that you are holding the original share certificate. Obtaining a replacement share certificate can be a time consuming process and slows down many a Millbank home move. Where a duplicate share is needed, do contact the company officers or managing agents (where applicable) for this at the earliest opportunity.

Completion in due on the disposal of our £250000 maisonette in Millbank in just under a week. The management company has quoted £348 for Landlord’s certificate, insurance certificate and 3 years service charge statements. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge an administration fee for a flat conveyance in Millbank?

For most leasehold sales in Millbank conveyancing will involve, queries regarding the management of a building inevitably needing to be answered directly by the freeholder or its agent, this includes :

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

Your lawyer will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for Millbank leasehold premises is £350. For Millbank 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 inherited a ground floor flat in Millbank. Given that I can not reach agreement with the freeholder, can the Leasehold valuation Tribunal make a decision on the sum payable for a lease extension?

in cases where there is a missing landlord or if 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 LVT to judgment on the price payable.

An example of a Lease Extension decision for a Millbank premises is Flats 12A & 19, Evelyn Mansions Carlisle Place in June 2009. The Tribunal held that the price to be paid for the new lease of Flat 12A is £168,824, For the other flat the price was set at £169,110 This case related to 2 flats. The the number of years remaining on the existing lease(s) was 56 years.