My fiance and I may need to rent out our Petersham ground floor flat temporarily due to a career opportunity. We used a Petersham conveyancing practice in 2003 but they have closed and we did not have the foresight to seek any advice as to whether the lease permits subletting. How do we find out?

Your lease dictates relations between the landlord and you the flat owner; in particular, it will set out if subletting is banned, or permitted but only subject to certain conditions. The accepted inference is that if the lease contains no expres ban or restriction, subletting is permitted. Most leases in Petersham do not contain strict prohibition on subletting – such a provision would adversely affect the market value the property. Instead, there is usually simply a requirement that the owner notifies the freeholder, possibly sending a duplicate of the sublease.

Having checked my lease I have discovered that there are only Fifty years left on my flat in Petersham. I now want to extend my lease but my freeholder is missing. What are my options?

If you meet the appropriate requirements, 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 enable the lease to be granted an extra 90 years by the magistrate. You will be obliged to prove that you have made all reasonable attempts to find the lessor. On the whole an enquiry agent may be helpful to conduct investigations and prepare an expert document which can be used as evidence that the landlord can not be located. It is advisable to get professional help from a solicitor both on proving the landlord’s absence and the application to the County Court covering Petersham.

Can you offer any advice when it comes to appointing a Petersham conveyancing practice to carry out our lease extension conveyancing?

If you are instructing a conveyancer for lease extension works (regardless if they are a Petersham conveyancing practice) it is most important that they be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of conveyancing. We recommend that you speak with two or three firms including non Petersham conveyancing practices before you instructing a firm. If the firm is ALEP accredited then that’s a bonus. Some following of questions could be useful:

• How many lease extensions have they completed in Petersham in the last twenty four months?
• What are the legal fees for lease extension work?

Completion in due on our sale of a £ 350000 apartment in Petersham next 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 an administration fee for a leasehold conveyance in Petersham?

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

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

After months of dialogue we cannot agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in Petersham. Does the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal have jurisdiction to calculate the appropriate figures?

You certainly can. We are happy to put you in touch with a Petersham conveyancing firm who can help.

An example of a Lease Extension case for a Petersham flat is Ground Floor Flat 91 Bath Road in May 2009. in a case where the freeholder could not be traced, the Brentford County Court ordered that the Lease be surrendered in return for the grant of a new lease of the Premises at a premium determined by the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal. The tribunal concluded that the price payable by the Applicant for the new lease of the premises be £15,900 This case affected 1 flat. The the number of years remaining on the existing lease(s) was 60.45 years.

In relation to leasehold conveyancing in Petersham what are the most frequent lease defects?

There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Petersham. Most leases are unique and drafting errors can result in certain provisions are missing. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:

• A provision to repair to or maintain parts of the building
• A duty to insure the building
• A provision for the recovery of money spent for the benefit of another party.
• Service charge per centages that don't add up correctly leaving a shortfall

You will have a problem when selling your property if you have a defective lease primarily because it impacts on the ability to obtain a mortgage on the property. Accord Mortgages Ltd, The Royal Bank of Scotland, and Alliance & Leicester all have express requirements when it comes to what is expected in a lease. If a mortgage lender believes that the lease is defective they may refuse to provide security, forcing the purchaser to pull out.

Petersham Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - Examples of Queries Prior to Purchasing

Who is in charge of the building? How many of the leaseholders are in arrears for their maintenance charge payments? Most Petersham leasehold apartments will incur a service charge for the upkeep of the block set on behalf of the landlord. If you purchase the apartment you will have to meet this amount, normally periodically during the year. This could vary from a couple of hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for blocks with lifts and large communal areas. In all probability there will be a rentcharge for you to pay yearly, this is usually not a large sum, say around £25-£75 but you should to enquire as on occasion it can be many hundreds of pounds.