I only have 68 years left on my flat in Rotherhithe. I now want to extend my lease but my freeholder is absent. What should I do?

On the basis that you meet the appropriate requirements, 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 granted an extra 90 years by the Court. You will be obliged to demonstrate that you or your lawyers have made all reasonable attempts to find the landlord. In some cases an enquiry agent would be useful to carry out a search and to produce an expert document to be accepted by the court as proof that the freeholder is indeed missing. It is wise to seek advice from a conveyancer in relation to investigating the landlord’s disappearance and the vesting order request to the County Court covering Rotherhithe.

Last month I purchased a leasehold flat in Rotherhithe. Am I liable to pay service charges for periods before my ownership?

In a situation 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 work for a reputable estate agency in Rotherhithe where we have experienced a few leasehold sales put at risk due to short leases. I have been given inconsistent advice from local Rotherhithe conveyancing firms. Could you shed some light as to whether the owner of a flat can initiate the lease extension formalities for the buyer?

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 buyer can avoid having to sit tight for 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done before, or at the same time as 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 purchaser.

Do you have any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Rotherhithe from the perspective of speeding up the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Rotherhithe can be reduced where you instruct lawyers as soon as your agents start marketing the property and ask them to put together the leasehold information needed by the purchasers’ lawyers.
• Many landlords or managing agents in Rotherhithe charge for providing management packs for a leasehold premises. You or your lawyers should find out the fee that they propose to charge. The management information can be applied for as soon as you have a buyer, thus reducing delays. The average time it takes to receive management information is three weeks. It is the most usual cause of delay in leasehold conveyancing in Rotherhithe.

In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s permission? In particular have you installed wooden flooring? Rotherhithe leases often stipulate that internal structural changes or laying down wooden flooring require a licence issued by the Landlord acquiescing to such changes. Should you dont have the consents in place do not communicate with the landlord without contacting your solicitor in the first instance.

Some Rotherhithe leases require Landlord’s consent to the sale and approval of the buyers. If this applies to your lease, it would be prudent to place the estate agents on notice to make sure that the purchasers put in hand financial (bank) and professional references. Any bank reference should make it clear that the buyer is able to meet 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 buyers or their lawyers.

If you have had any disputes with your landlord or managing agents it is essential that these are resolved before the property is marketed. The purchasers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a property 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 are still duty bound to disclose particulars of the dispute to the buyers, but it is clearly preferable to reveal the dispute as over as opposed to unsettled.

If all goes to plan we aim to complete the disposal of our £225000 apartment in Rotherhithe next week. The landlords agents has quoted £336 for Certificate of Compliance, insurance certificate and previous years service charge statements. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge exorbitant fees for a flat conveyance in Rotherhithe?

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

• Addressing pre-contract questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Rotherhithe
• Supplying insurance information
• Deeds of covenant upon sale
• Registering of the assignment of the change of lessee after a sale

Your conveyancer will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for Rotherhithe leasehold property is £350. For Rotherhithe 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 answers.

I am the registered owner of a a ground floor purpose built flat in Rotherhithe. In the absence of agreement between myself and the freeholder, can the Leasehold valuation Tribunal determine the sum due for a lease extension?

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

An example of a Freehold Enfranchisement case for a Rotherhithe premises 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 was in relation to 3 flats. The the unexpired residue of the current lease was 101.61 years.