I am on look out for some leasehold conveyancing in Old Oak Common. Before I get started I would like to find out the remaining lease term.

If the lease is registered - and most are in Old Oak Common - then the leasehold title will always include the short particulars 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.

Helen (my wife) and I may need to rent out our Old Oak Common basement flat for a while due to a career opportunity. We used a Old Oak Common conveyancing firm in 2001 but they have since shut and we did not have the foresight to seek any advice as to whether the lease prohibits the subletting of the flat. How do we find out?

A lease dictates relations between the freeholder and you the flat owner; in particular, it will say if subletting is banned, or permitted but only subject to certain conditions. The accepted inference is that if the lease contains no specific ban or restriction, subletting is permitted. The majority of leases in Old Oak Common do not contain strict prohibition on subletting – such a provision would adversely affect the market value the property. In most cases there is simply a requirement that the owner notifies the freeholder, possibly supplying a copy of the sublease.

There are only Seventy years remaining on my flat in Old Oak Common. I now wish to get lease extension but my landlord is can not be found. What are my options?

If you qualify, 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 mean that your lease can be extended by the Court. You will be obliged to prove that you or your lawyers have made all reasonable attempts to track down the freeholder. In some cases an enquiry agent should be helpful to conduct investigations and prepare an expert document to be used as evidence that the landlord is indeed missing. It is wise to seek advice from a property lawyer in relation to devolving into the landlord’s disappearance and the vesting order request to the County Court covering Old Oak Common.

I am attracted to a two maisonettes in Old Oak Common which have about 50 years left on the leases. Do I need to be concerned?

A lease is a right to use the property for a prescribed time frame. As a lease shortens the value of the lease deteriorate and results in it becoming more expensive to acquire a lease extension. For this reason it is often a good idea to extend the lease term. More often than not it is difficult to sell a property with a short lease because mortgage companies may be unwilling to lend money on properties of this type. Lease enfranchisement can be a protracted process. We recommend you get professional help from a solicitor and surveyor with experience in this arena

I work for a reputable estate agent office in Old Oak Common where we see a few flat sales jeopardised as a result of leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have received contradictory information from local Old Oak Common conveyancing firms. Please can you shed some light as to whether the vendor of a flat can commence the lease extension process for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

As long as the seller has owned the lease for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to commence 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 sit tight for 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.

Alternatively, it may be possible 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 purchaser.

Following years of negotiations we cannot agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in Old Oak Common. Can we issue an application to the Residential Property Tribunal Service?

Where there is a absentee landlord or if there is dispute about what the lease extension should cost, under the relevant legislation you can apply to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) to arrive at the price.

An example of a Freehold Enfranchisement case for a Old Oak Common flat 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 affected 2 flats. The remaining number of years on the lease was 68.47 years.

Leasehold Conveyancing in Old Oak Common - A selection of Queries before buying

Where a Old Oak Common lease has less than eighty years it will affect the marketability of the flat. Check with your bank that they are content with residual term of the lease. A short lease means that you will most likely require a lease extension sooner rather than later and it is worth finding out what this will be. For most Old Oak Commonlease extensions you would need to own the property for two years before you are entitled to extend the lease.