Harry (my fiance) and I may need to rent out our Old Oak Common ground floor flat for a while due to a new job. We instructed a Old Oak Common conveyancing firm in 2003 but they have closed and we did not have the foresight to seek any guidance as to whether the lease permits subletting. How do we find out?

Notwithstanding that your last Old Oak Common conveyancing solicitor is not around you can check your lease to check if it allows you to sublet the property. The rule is that if the deeds are silent, subletting is permitted. There may be a precondition that you must seek consent via your landlord or other appropriate person before subletting. This means you not allowed to sublet in the absence of first obtaining consent. The consent should not be unreasonably withheld. If your lease prohibits you from subletting the property you will need to ask your landlord if they are willing to waive this restriction.

Back In 2001, I bought a leasehold flat in Old Oak Common. Conveyancing and Platform Home Loans Ltd mortgage are in place. A letter has just been received from someone saying they have taken over the freehold. It included a ground rent demand for rent dating back to 1996. The conveyancing practitioner in Old Oak Common who previously acted has now retired.Any advice?

First make enquiries of HMLR to be sure that this person is indeed the new freeholder. There is no need to instruct a Old Oak Common conveyancing lawyer to do this as you can do this on the Land Registry website for less than a fiver. You should note that regardless, even if this is the rightful freeholder, under the Limitation Act 1980 the limitation period for recovery of ground rent is six years.

Last month I purchased a leasehold flat in Old Oak Common. Do I have any liability for service charges for periods before completion of my purchase?

Where the service charge has already been demanded from the previous lessee and they have not paid you would not usually be personally liable for the arrears. Strange as it may seem, your landlord may still be able to take action to forfeit the lease. It is an essential part of leasehold conveyancing for your conveyancer to be sure to have an up to date clear service charge receipt before completion of your purchase. If you have a mortgage this is likely to be a requirement of your lender.

If you purchase part way through an accounting year you may be liable for charges not yet demanded even if they relate to a period prior to your purchase. In such circumstances your conveyancer would normally arrange for the seller to set aside some money to cover their part of the period (usually called a service charge retention).

Do you have any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Old Oak Common from the point of view of expediting the sale process?

• Much of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Old Oak Common can be avoided if you get in touch lawyers the minute your agents start advertising the property and ask them to put together the leasehold information which will be required by the purchasers’ representatives.
• If you have carried out any alterations to the residence would they have required Landlord’s consent? Have you, for example installed wooden flooring? Most leases in Old Oak Common state that internal structural alterations or addition of wooden flooring necessitate a licence issued by the Landlord consenting to such works. Should you fail to have the approvals in place do not communicate with the landlord without checking with your lawyer first.

Some Old Oak Common leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this applies to your lease, it would be prudent to notify your estate agents to make sure that the purchasers put in hand 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 service charge figures so that they can pass this information on to the buyers or their lawyers.

If there is a history of conflict with your landlord or managing agents it is very important that these are resolved before the property is marketed. The buyers and their solicitors will be concerned about purchasing a flat where there is a current dispute. You may need to swallow your pride and pay 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 purchasers, but it is clearly preferable to present the dispute as historic rather than unresolved.

If you have the benefit of shareholding in the freehold, you should make sure that you are holding the original share document. Obtaining a duplicate share certificate can be a lengthy process and delays many a Old Oak Common home move. If a duplicate share is necessary, you should approach the company director and secretary or managing agents (if applicable) for this sooner rather than later.

We expect to complete our sale of a £450000 maisonette in Old Oak Common next Thursday . The managing agents has quoted £312 for Landlord’s certificate, building insurance schedule and previous years statements of service charge. Is the landlord entitled to charge such fees for a flat conveyance in Old Oak Common?

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

• Answering pre-contract questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Old Oak Common
• 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 Old Oak Common leasehold property is £350. For Old Oak Common 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 required to provide the information.

My wife and I have hit a brick wall in seeking a lease extension in Old Oak Common. Can this matter be resolved via the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal?

if there is a missing landlord or where there is dispute 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 judgment on the premium.

An example of a Freehold Enfranchisement matter before the tribunal for a Old Oak Common premises is 49 Long Drive in March 2014. The tribunal concluded that the price payable for the freehold interest in the Property should be £26,491 divided as to £12,546 in respect of the ground floor flat and £13,945 in respect of the
first floor flat This case related to 2 flats. The the unexpired residue of the current lease was 68.47 years.