Having had my offer accepted I require leasehold conveyancing in Neasden. Before I get started I require certainty as to the unexpired term of the lease.

Assuming the lease is registered - and almost all are in Neasden - 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.

I wish to sublet my leasehold apartment in Neasden. Conveyancing solicitor who did the purchase is retired - so can't ask him. Is permission from the freeholder required?

Notwithstanding that your last Neasden conveyancing solicitor is no longer around you can review your lease to check if you are permitted to let out the premises. The accepted inference is that if the deeds are non-specific, subletting is allowed. There may be a precondition that you need to obtain permission via your landlord or other appropriate person in advance of subletting. This means you not allowed to sublet in the absence of first obtaining consent. The consent should not be unreasonably refused ore delayed. If your lease prohibits you from letting out the property you will need to ask your landlord for their consent.

I have recently realised that I have Fifty years left on my lease in Neasden. I now wish to extend my lease but my freeholder is can not be found. 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 for permission to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will mean that your lease can be lengthened by the magistrate. However, you will be required to demonstrate that you have made all reasonable attempts to track down the landlord. In some cases an enquiry agent may be useful to conduct investigations and prepare an expert document to be accepted by the court as proof that the landlord is indeed missing. It is wise to seek advice from a property lawyer both on investigating the landlord’s disappearance and the application to the County Court covering Neasden.

Can you provide any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Neasden with the aim of speeding up the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Neasden can be avoided if you appoint lawyers as soon as you market your property and ask them to put together the leasehold documentation needed by the purchasers’ lawyers.
• The majority freeholders or Management Companies in Neasden levy fees 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 sought on or before finding 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 cause of delay in leasehold conveyancing in Neasden.
• In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s consent? In particular have you installed wooden flooring? Neasden leases often stipulate that internal structural alterations or laying down wooden flooring necessitate a licence issued by the Landlord acquiescing to such alterations. Where you fail to have the consents in place you should not communicate with the landlord without contacting your conveyancer in advance.
• Some Neasden leases require Landlord’s consent to the sale and approval of the buyers. If this is the case, you should notify your estate agents to make sure that the purchasers obtain bank and professional references. Any bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are financially capable of paying 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 actual amount of the service charge so that they can pass this information on to the purchasers or their solicitors.
• You believe that you know the number of years remaining on your lease but you should verify this via your conveyancers. A purchaser's lawyer will not be happy to advise their client to where the lease term is below 75 years. It is therefore essential at an as soon as possible that you consider whether the lease term for your property needs extending. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your premises on the market for sale.

All being well we will complete the sale of our £ 425000 apartment in Neasden on Thursday in a week. The management company has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Landlord’s certificate, building insurance schedule and 3 years statements of service charge. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge such fees for a leasehold conveyance in Neasden?

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

• Completing pre-exchange questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Neasden
• Supplying insurance information
• 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 Neasden leasehold premises is £350. For Neasden 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 answers.

I am the proprietor of a second floor flat in Neasden. Given that I can not reach agreement with the landlord, can the Leasehold valuation Tribunal make a decision on the amount due for a lease extension?

if there is a absentee freeholder or where there is disagreement about what the lease extension should cost, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 it is possible to make an application to the LVT to arrive at the amount due.

An example of a Freehold Enfranchisement case for a Neasden property is 12 & 12A Deacon Road in May 2010. the Tribunal concluded that the price to be paid for the freehold should be £38,287 This case was in relation to 2 flats. The unexpired lease term was 65.58 years.

I am the registered owner of a leasehold flat in Neasden, conveyancing formalities finalised half a dozen years ago. Can you please calculate a probable premium for a statutory lease extension? Corresponding flats in Neasden with over 90 years remaining are worth £264,000. The ground rent is £45 yearly. The lease terminates on 21st October 2087

With 61 years left to run we estimate the premium for your lease extension to span between £23,800 and £27,400 plus legals.

The figure that we have given is a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we cannot give you the actual costs in the absence of comprehensive investigations. Do not use the figures in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There may be other issues that need to be taken into account and clearly you should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Neither should you move forward placing reliance on this information before getting professional advice.