I only have Seventy years unexpired on my lease in Morden. I now want to extend my lease but my landlord is absent. What are my options?

On the basis that you qualify, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can submit an application to the County Court for an order 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. You will be obliged to demonstrate that you or your lawyers have used your best endeavours to locate the freeholder. In some cases a specialist would be helpful to conduct investigations and prepare a report which can be accepted by the court as evidence that the landlord can not be located. It is wise to seek advice from a property lawyer in relation to devolving into the landlord’s disappearance and the vesting order request to the County Court overseeing Morden.

I own a leasehold flat in Morden. Conveyancing and Barclays Direct mortgage are in place. I have received a letter from someone saying they have taken over the freehold. It included a ground rent demand for rent dating back to 1993. The conveyancing solicitor in Morden who acted for me is not around.Do I pay?

The first thing you should do is make enquiries of HMLR to make sure that this person is in fact the new freeholder. You do not need to incur the fees of a Morden conveyancing solicitor to do this as you can do this on the Land Registry website for £3. Rest assured that regardless, even if this is the legitimate freeholder, under the Limitation Act 1980 the limitation period for recovery of ground rent is six years.

I am looking at a couple of flats in Morden which have in the region of fifty years unexpired on the lease term. Will this present a problem?

There are plenty of short leases in Morden. The lease is a legal document that entitles you to use the property for a prescribed time frame. As the lease gets shorter the value of the lease reduces and results in it becoming more expensive to acquire a lease extension. For this reason it is often a good idea to extend the lease term. It is often difficult to sell a property with a short lease as mortgage companies 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 am a negotiator for a busy estate agent office in Morden where we have witnessed a few flat sales derailed due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given conflicting advice from local Morden conveyancing solicitors. Can you shed some light as to whether the seller of a flat can start the lease extension formalities for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

As long as the seller has been the owner for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. This means that the proposed purchaser 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 has to be done prior to, or at the same time as completion of the disposal of the property.

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 purchaser.

What are your top tips when it comes to appointing a Morden conveyancing practice to carry out our lease extension conveyancing?

If you are instructing a conveyancer for lease extension works (regardless if they are a Morden conveyancing firm) it is essential that he or she should be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of conveyancing. We advise that you speak with several firms including non Morden conveyancing practices before you instructing a firm. Where the conveyancing practice is ALEP accredited then so much the better. Some following of questions might be useful:

• What volume of lease extensions have they completed in Morden in the last 12 months?
• What are the legal fees for lease extension conveyancing?

I am the registered owner of a two-bedroom flat in Morden. In the absence of agreement between myself and the landlord, can the Leasehold valuation Tribunal determine the premium payable for a lease extension?

in cases where there is a missing freeholder or where there is dispute about the premium for a lease extension, under the relevant legislation it is possible to make an application to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) to arrive at the amount due.

An example of a Lease Extension matter before the tribunal for a Morden residence is 14 Nutwell Street in January 2014. The premium payable for the acquisition of a new lease of the subject premises was in the sum of £30,523 This case related to 1 flat. The the unexpired residue of the current lease was 62.94 years.

I own a ground floor flat in Morden, conveyancing was carried out 2002. Can you shed any light on how much the price could be for a 90 year extension to my lease? Corresponding flats in Morden with a long lease are worth £244,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £60 invoiced annually. The lease ends on 21st October 2081

With 55 years left to run we estimate the premium for your lease extension to span between £27,600 and £31,800 as well as legals.

The figure above a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we are not able to provide a more accurate figure without more comprehensive investigations. You should not use this information in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There may be other concerns that need to be considered and you obviously should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. You should not take any other action based on this information before getting professional advice.