I have recently realised that I have Fifty years left on my flat in Purley. I am keen to extend my lease but my freeholder is missing. What options are available to me?

On the basis that 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 enable the lease to be extended by the magistrate. You will be obliged to prove that you have done all that could be expected to track down the freeholder. In some cases an enquiry agent should be useful to conduct investigations and prepare an expert document to be accepted by the court as proof that the landlord is indeed missing. It is wise to seek advice from a conveyancer in relation to devolving into the landlord’s disappearance and the vesting order request to the County Court covering Purley.

I am hoping to exchange soon on a basement flat in Purley. Conveyancing solicitors inform me that they will have a report out to me on Monday. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?

The report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in Purley should include some of the following:

• Do you need to have carpet in the flat or are you allowed wood flooring?
• Ground rent - how much and when you need to pay, and also know whether this will change in the future
• Whether your lease has a provision for a reserve fund?
• You should have a good understanding of the insurance provisions
• Repair and maintenance of the flat
• I don't know whether the lease allows me to alter or improve anything in the flat - you should know whether it applies to all alterations or just structural alteration, and whether consent is required
• Whether the landlord has obligations to ensure rights of quiet enjoyment over your premises and do you know what it means in practice?

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

There are no two ways about it. A leasehold apartment in Purley is a wasting asset as a result of the shortening lease. The closer the lease gets to its expiry date, the more it reduces the salability of the premises. For most buyers and lenders, leases with less than eighty years become less and less marketable. On a more upbeat note, leaseholders can extend their leases by serving a Section 42 Notice. One stipulation is that they must have owned the property for two years (unlike a Section 13 notice for purchasing the freehold, when leaseholders can participate from day one of ownership). When successful, they will have the right to an extension of 90 years to the current term and ground rent is effectively reduced to zero. Before moving forward with a purchase of a residence with a short lease term remaining you should talk to a solicitor specialising in lease extensions and leasehold enfranchisement. We are are happy to put you in touch with Purley conveyancing experts who will explain the options available to you during an initial telephone conversation free of charge. A more straightforward and quicker method of extending would be to contact your landlord directly and sound him out on the prospect of extending the lease You may find he or she is happy to negotiate informally and willing to consider your offer straight off, without having to involve anyone else. This will save you time and money and it could help you reach a lower price on the lease. You need to ensure that any new terms represent good long-term value compared with the standard benefits of the Section 42 Notice and that onerous clauses are not inserted into any redrafting of the lease.

I've recently bought a leasehold flat in Purley. Am I liable to pay service charges for periods before my ownership?

Where the service charge has already been demanded from the previous owner 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. A critical element of leasehold conveyancing for your conveyancer to ensure 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).

I am employed by a reputable estate agency in Purley where we have witnessed a number of flat sales put at risk due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given contradictory information from local Purley conveyancing firms. Can you confirm whether the seller of a flat can initiate the lease extension formalities for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

Provided that 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 buyer can avoid having to wait 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done before, or simultaneously with completion of the sale.

An alternative approach is to agree the lease extension with the freeholder 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.

I inherited a ground-floor 1960’s flat in Purley. In the absence of agreement between myself and the freeholder, can the Leasehold valuation Tribunal make a decision on the premium due for the purchase of the freehold?

Most definitely. We can put you in touch with a Purley conveyancing firm who can help.

An example of a Freehold Enfranchisement case for a Purley residence is The Woodlands 95 Purley Park Road in April 2009. The Tribunals own valuation produced the fi
gure of £37,912. This case was in relation to 6 flats. The unexpired lease term was 78.32 years.

I inherited a basement flat in Purley, conveyancing formalities finalised 1999. How much will my lease extension cost? Comparable flats in Purley with a long lease are worth £242,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £45 levied per year. The lease finishes on 21st October 2105

You have 79 years remaining on your lease we estimate the premium for your lease extension to span between £9,500 and £11,000 plus professional fees.

The figure above a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we are not able to provide the actual costs without more detailed due diligence. You should not use this information in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There are no doubt other issues that need to be considered and you obviously should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. You should not take any other action placing reliance on this information before seeking the advice of a professional.