My partner and I may need to let out our Mottingham basement flat temporarily due to a new job. We used a Mottingham conveyancing practice in 2004 but they have since shut 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?

Notwithstanding that your previous Mottingham conveyancing solicitor is no longer available you can review your lease to check if you are permitted to let out the apartment. The accepted inference is that if the deeds are non-specific, subletting is permitted. There may be a precondition that you are obliged to seek permission from your landlord or some other party before subletting. The net result is that you cannot sublet without first obtaining permission. The consent is not allowed to 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 am employed by a long established estate agent office in Mottingham where we have witnessed a few leasehold sales derailed as a result of leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given contradictory information from local Mottingham conveyancing firms. Can you clarify whether the owner of a flat can instigate the lease extension process 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 kick-start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. This means that the buyer need not have 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 at the same time as completion of the sale.

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 Mottingham with the intention of speeding up the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Mottingham can be reduced if you get in touch lawyers the minute you market your property and request that they start to put together the leasehold documentation which will be required by the buyers solicitors.
• Many landlords or managing agents in Mottingham charge for providing management packs for a leasehold property. You or your lawyers should enquire as to the fee that they propose to charge. The management information can be applied for as soon as you have a buyer, thus accelerating the process. The typical amount of time it takes to obtain the necessary information is three weeks. It is the most frequent reason for delay in leasehold conveyancing in Mottingham.
• If you have carried out any alterations to the residence would they have required Landlord’s consent? Have you, for example laid down wooden flooring? Most leases in Mottingham state that internal structural changes or laying down wooden flooring calls for a licence from the Landlord consenting to such alterations. If you fail to have the consents to hand you should not contact the landlord without checking with your conveyancer in advance.
• If there is a history of any disputes with your freeholder or managing agents it is essential that these are settled before the property is marketed. The buyers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a property where a dispute is ongoing. You may have to bite the bullet and discharge any arrears of service charge or settle the dispute prior to completion of the sale. 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 buyers, but it is better to reveal the dispute as historic as opposed to ongoing.
• If you are supposed to have a share in the Management Company, you should make sure that you hold the original share certificate. Organising a replacement share certificate can be a time consuming process and delays many a Mottingham conveyancing transaction. Where a reissued share certificate is needed, you should approach the company director and secretary or managing agents (where applicable) for this sooner rather than later.

If all goes to plan we aim to complete our sale of a £ 500000 apartment in Mottingham next week. The landlords agents has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Certificate of Compliance, insurance certificate and previous years statements of service charge. Is the landlord entitled to charge exorbitant fees for a flat conveyance in Mottingham?

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

• Answering pre-exchange questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Mottingham
• Copies of the building insurance and schedule
• Deeds of covenant upon sale
• Registering of the assignment of the change of lessee after a sale

Your conveyancer will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for Mottingham leasehold property is £350. For Mottingham 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 am the proprietor of a a ground floor purpose built flat in Mottingham. In the absence of agreement between myself and the landlord, can the Leasehold valuation Tribunal make a decision on the amount payable for a lease extension?

in cases where there is a missing landlord or if there is dispute about the premium for a lease extension, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal to calculate the price payable.

An example of a Lease Extension case for a Mottingham property is 49 Woodstock Court Burnt Ash Hill in May 2012. the payment of £64,116 by the leaseholder was the premium which the Tribunal found due for the lease extension in this case. This case affected 1 flat. The unexpired lease term was 23.26 years.

When it comes to leasehold conveyancing in Mottingham what are the most frequent lease defects?

There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Mottingham. Most leases are unique and legal mistakes in the legal wording can result in certain provisions are not included. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:

• A provision to repair to or maintain parts of the building
• A duty to insure the building
• Clauses dealing with recovering service charges for expenditure on the building or common parts.
• Maintenance charge proportions which don’t add up to the correct percentage

A defective lease will likely cause problems when trying to sell a property as they can affect a potential buyer’s ability to obtain a mortgage. HSBC Bank, The Mortgage Works, and Aldermore all have express requirements when it comes to what is expected in a lease. Where a lender has been advised by their lawyers that the lease does not cover certain provisions they may refuse to grant the mortgage, forcing the buyer to pull out.

Mottingham Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - Examples of Questions you should consider Prior to buying

Are any of leasehold owners in arrears of their service charge payments? The prefered form of lease structure is a share of the freehold. In this situation the leaseholders enjoy control and although a managing agent is often employed where it is bigger than a house conversion, the managing agent retained by the leaseholders.