I am on look out for some leasehold conveyancing in Notting Hill. Before diving in I would like to find out the remaining lease term.

Assuming the lease is recorded at the land registry - and 99.9% are in Notting Hill - 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.

My fiance and I may need to rent out our Notting Hill basement flat for a while due to taking a sabbatical. We used a Notting Hill conveyancing firm in 2001 but they have closed and we did not have the foresight to seek any guidance as to whether the lease prohibits the subletting of the flat. How do we find out?

Some leases for properties in Notting Hill do contain a provision to say that subletting is only allowed with permission. The landlord cannot unreasonably withhold but, in such cases, they would need to review references. Experience suggests that problems are usually caused by unsatisfactory tenants rather than owner-occupiers and for that reason you can expect the freeholder to take up the references and consider them carefully before granting consent.

I am a negotiator for a busy estate agency in Notting Hill where we have witnessed a number of flat sales derailed as a result of short leases. I have been given conflicting advice from local Notting Hill conveyancing firms. Please can you shed some light as to whether the seller of a flat can start the lease extension process for the buyer?

As long as the seller has owned the lease 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. The benefit of this is that the proposed purchaser 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 prior to, or at the same time as 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 buyer.

Do you have any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Notting Hill from the perspective of speeding up the sale process?

• Much of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Notting Hill can be avoided where you get in touch lawyers the minute you market your property and request that they start to put together the leasehold information needed by the buyers conveyancers.
• Many landlords or Management Companies in Notting Hill charge for supplying management packs for a leasehold premises. 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 reducing delays. The typical amount of time it takes to obtain the necessary information is three weeks. It is the most common cause of delay in leasehold conveyancing in Notting Hill.
• Some Notting Hill leases require Landlord’s consent to the sale and approval of the buyers. If this applies to your lease, it would be prudent to notify your estate agents to make sure that the purchasers put in hand bank and professional references. Any bank reference should make it clear that the buyer is financially capable of paying the yearly 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 conflict with your freeholder or managing agents it is very important that these are resolved before the property is marketed. The buyers and their solicitors will be nervous about purchasing a property where there is an ongoing 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 prior to the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You will still have to reveal particulars of the dispute to the buyers, but it is clearly preferable to present the dispute as historic as opposed to unsettled.
• If you are supposed to have a share in the freehold, you should ensure that you are holding the original share document. Arranging a replacement share certificate is often a time consuming process and delays many a Notting Hill conveyancing transaction. Where a new share is necessary, do contact the company officers or managing agents (where relevant) for this sooner rather than later.

After months of correspondence we simply can't agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in Notting Hill. Can we issue an application to the Residential Property Tribunal Service?

Most definitely. We are happy to put you in touch with a Notting Hill conveyancing firm who can help.

An example of a Lease Extension decision for a Notting Hill property is 2 Grove House 95 Addison Road in October 2013. the Tribunal decided that the premium to bepaid for a new lease is £50,050. This case related to 1 flat. The the unexpired term as at the valuation date was 68.4 years.

Are there frequently found defects that you see in leases for Notting Hill properties?

There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Notting Hill. All leases are unique and drafting errors can sometimes mean that certain clauses are missing. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:

• A provision to repair to or maintain elements of the property
• Insurance obligations
• 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 can cause issues when trying to sell a property primarily because it impacts on the ability to obtain a mortgage on the property. Barclays , The Mortgage Works, and Bank of Ireland all have express conveyancing instructions 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.

Notting Hill Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - A selection of Queries before buying

It would be a good idea to enquire if there are any onerous restrictions in the lease. For example plenty of leases prohibit pets being permitted in certain buildings in Notting Hill. If you love the apartmentin Notting Hill but your dog is not allowed to live with you then you will be faced difficult choice. The best form of lease structure is where the freehold title is in the ownership of the leaseholders. In this situation the leaseholders have being in charge if their destiny and even though a managing agent is usually employed where the building is bigger than a house conversion, the managing agent employed by the leaseholders. How many years are left on the lease?