I only have Fifty years remaining on my lease in Rotherhithe. I now wish to extend my lease but my freeholder is absent. What should I do?

If you qualify, 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 extended by the magistrate. You will be obliged to demonstrate that you have used your best endeavours to locate the landlord. For most situations an enquiry agent should be useful to conduct investigations and to produce a report to be used as proof that the landlord can not be located. It is advisable to get professional help from a conveyancer both on devolving into the landlord’s disappearance and the application to the County Court overseeing Rotherhithe.

I own a leasehold flat in Rotherhithe. Conveyancing and Godiva Mortgages Ltd mortgage are in place. A letter has just been received from someone claiming to own the reversionary interest in the property. It included a demand for arrears of ground rent dating back to 1994. The conveyancing practitioner in Rotherhithe who acted for me is not around.Do I pay?

The first thing you should do is make enquiries of the Land Registry to make sure that this person is indeed the registered owner of the freehold reversion. There is no need to instruct a Rotherhithe conveyancing lawyer to do this as you can do this on the Land Registry website for less than a fiver. You should note that in any event, even if this is the legitimate freeholder, under the Limitation Act 1980 no more than 6 years of rent can be collected.

Last month I purchased a leasehold property in Rotherhithe. 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. However, 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).

Do you have any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Rotherhithe from the point of view of speeding up the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Rotherhithe can be avoided if you appoint lawyers the minute your agents start marketing the property and ask them to put together the leasehold documentation needed by the purchasers’ conveyancers.
• In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s consent? In particular have you laid down wooden flooring? Most leases in Rotherhithe state that internal structural changes or installing wooden flooring require a licence from the Landlord acquiescing to such alterations. Where you fail to have the approvals to hand do not communicate with the landlord without contacting your conveyancer first.
• A minority of Rotherhithe leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this applies to your lease, you should place the estate agents on notice to make sure that the purchasers obtain financial (bank) and professional references. The bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are 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 service charge figures so that they can pass this information on to the purchasers or their lawyers.
• If you have had conflict with your landlord or managing agents it is very important that these are settled prior to the flat being marketed. The purchasers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a flat where there is a current dispute. You may need to swallow your pride and discharge any arrears of service charge or resolve the dispute prior to the buyers completing the purchase. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled ahead of 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 better to reveal the dispute as over as opposed to ongoing.
• You believe that you know the number of years left on your lease but it would be advisable double-check via your lawyers. A buyer’s conveyancer will be unlikely to recommend their client to proceed with the purchase of a leasehold property the remaining number of years is below 75 years. In the circumstances it is important at an as soon as possible that you identify whether the lease requires a lease extension. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your home on the market for sale.

If all goes to plan we aim to complete the disposal of our £ 350000 garden flat in Rotherhithe in just under a week. The management company has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Landlord’s certificate, insurance certificate and previous years service charge statements. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge an administration fee for a flat conveyance in Rotherhithe?

Rotherhithe conveyancing on leasehold apartments more often than not involves the purchaser’s solicitor sending enquiries for the landlord to address. Although the landlord is not legally bound to address these enquiries the majority will be willing to do so. They are at liberty levy a reasonable administration fee for responding to enquiries or supplying documentation. There is no upper cap for such fees. The average fee for the information that you are referring to is over three hundred pounds, in some situations it exceeds £800. The management information fee levied by the landlord must be sent together with a summary of rights and obligations in respect of administration charges, without which the invoice is not strictly payable. In reality one has no choice but to pay whatever is demanded if you want to exchange contracts with the buyer.

I have tried to negotiate informally with with my landlord for a lease extension without success. Can one make an application to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal? Can you recommend a Rotherhithe conveyancing firm to assist?

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

An example of a Freehold Enfranchisement decision for a Rotherhithe property is 12, 14 & 16 Hull Close in May 2010. the Tribunal determined that the premium payable for the acquisition of the freehold to the subject premises was the sum of £18,300 This case related to 3 flats. The remaining number of years on the lease was 101.61 years.

Leasehold Conveyancing in Rotherhithe - Sample of Questions you should ask Prior to buying

Who takes responsibility for maintaining and repairing the block? Most Rotherhithe leasehold properties will have a service charge for maintenance of the block set on behalf of the freeholder. If you buy the apartment you will have to meet this amount, normally in instalments throughout the year. This can vary from a few hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for blocks with lifts and large common grounds. There will also be a rentcharge to be met annual, this is usually not a significant amount, say about £50-£100 but you should to check it because occasionally it can be surprisingly expensive.