Having checked my lease I have discovered that there are only Seventy years left on my lease in New Cross. I now want to get lease extension but my freeholder is absent. What are my options?

On the basis that you meet the appropriate requirements, 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 enable the lease to be extended by the Court. However, you will be required to prove that you or your lawyers have done all that could be expected to track down the freeholder. For most situations a specialist would be useful to carry out a search and to produce a report which can be used as evidence that the landlord can not be located. It is wise to seek advice from a property lawyer both on investigating the landlord’s absence and the vesting order request to the County Court overseeing New Cross.

I have just started marketing my ground floor apartment in New Cross.Conveyancing has not commenced but I have just received a yearly service charge demand – what should I do?

It best that you pay the invoice as normal because all ground rent and service charges will be apportioned on completion, so you will be reimbursed by the buyer for the period running from after the completion date to the next payment date. Most managing agents will not acknowledge the buyer until the service charges have been paid and are up to date so it is important for both buyer and seller for the seller to show that they are up to date. This will smooth the conveyancing process.

I am attracted to a couple of maisonettes in New Cross both have in the region of fifty years left on the leases. Should I regard a short lease as a deal breaker?

There are plenty of short leases in New Cross. The lease is a right to use the premises for a prescribed time frame. As the lease gets shorter the marketability of the lease decreases and results in it becoming more expensive to acquire a lease extension. For this reason it is advisable to increase the term of the lease. Sometimes it is difficult to sell a property with a short lease because mortgage companies may be reluctant to lend money on such properties. Lease enfranchisement can be a protracted process. We recommend you get professional help from a solicitor and surveyor with experience in this field

Do you have any advice for leasehold conveyancing in New Cross with the intention of speeding up the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in New Cross can be reduced where you appoint lawyers as soon as you market your property and request that they start to collate the leasehold information needed by the purchasers’ solicitors.
• The majority freeholders or Management Companies in New Cross charge for providing management packs for a leasehold premises. You or your lawyers should enquire as to the fee that they propose to charge. The management pack sought 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 common reason for frustration in leasehold conveyancing in New Cross.
• Some New Cross leases require Landlord’s consent to the sale and approval of the buyers. If this is the case, it would be prudent to place the estate agents on notice to make sure that the purchasers obtain financial (bank) and professional references. The 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 buyers or their solicitors.
• If there is a history of any disputes with your landlord or managing agents it is very important that these are settled prior to the flat being put on the market. The buyers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a property where there is an ongoing dispute. You may need to swallow your pride and discharge any arrears of service charge or resolve 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 will still have to reveal particulars of the dispute to the purchasers, but it is better to reveal the dispute as historic rather than ongoing.
• If you are supposed to have a share in the Management Company, you should ensure that you are holding the original share document. Arranging a re-issued share certificate can be a time consuming process and slows down many a New Cross home move. Where a reissued share certificate is needed, do contact the company director and secretary or managing agents (if applicable) for this sooner rather than later.

We expect to complete our sale of a £ 400000 maisonette in New Cross on Friday in a week. The freeholder has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Certificate of Compliance, building insurance schedule and 3 years service charge statements. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge such fees for a flat conveyance in New Cross?

For most leasehold sales in New Cross 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 New Cross
• 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 solicitor will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for New Cross leasehold premises is £350. For New Cross 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 have had difficulty in trying to reach an agreement for a lease extension in New Cross. Can this matter be resolved via the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal?

if there is a missing freeholder or where there is dispute about the premium for a lease extension, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 it is possible to make an application to the LVT to judgment on the amount due.

An example of a Freehold Enfranchisement decision for a New Cross residence is 41 Endwell Road in March 2013. this matter relateed to the acquisition of the freehold of a mid- terraced Victorian house converted into three separate self-contained dwellings. By an order dated 28/11/2012, Deputy District Judge Cole in the Bromley County Court held that the leaseholders were entitled to acquire the freehold and directed that the premium payable be determined by this Tribunal. The Tribunal assessed the premium to be £14,753 This case was in relation to 3 flats. The unexpired lease term was 80.01 years.

Leasehold Conveyancing in New Cross - Examples of Queries Prior to buying

It would be wise to find out as much as possible concerning the company managing the building as they will impact your use and enjoyment of the property. Being a leasehold owner you are frequently in the clutches of the managing agents both financially and when it comes to day to day issues such as the tidiness of the communal areas. Enquire of other people what they think of them. Finally, be sure you discover the dates that you are obliged pay the maintenance charge to the managing agents and precisely how they are spending that money.