I am on look out for some leasehold conveyancing in South Ruislip. Before diving in I require certainty as to the unexpired term of the lease.

If the lease is registered - and almost all are in South Ruislip - 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.

My fiance and I may need to rent out our South Ruislip basement flat temporarily due to a career opportunity. We used a South Ruislip conveyancing practice in 2002 but they have closed and we did not think at the time get any advice as to whether the lease allows us to sublet. How do we find out?

Even though your previous South Ruislip conveyancing lawyer is not around you can check your lease to check if you are permitted to let out the apartment. The accepted inference is that if the deeds are silent, subletting is allowed. Quite often there is a prerequisite that you need to seek consent via your landlord or some other party before subletting. The net result is you not allowed to sublet without prior permission. Such consent should not be unreasonably withheld. If your lease does not allow you to sublet you should ask your landlord for their consent.

I have just appointed agents to market my basement flat in South Ruislip.Conveyancing lawyers have not yet been instructed but I have just received a quarterly service charge invoice – should I leave it to the buyer to sort out?

It best that you discharge the invoice as normal because all ground rent and service charges will be apportioned on completion, so you will be reimbursed by the buyer for the period running from after the completion date to the next payment date. Most management companies will not acknowledge the buyer unless the service charges have been paid and are up to date so it is important for both buyer and seller for the seller to show that they are up to date. This will smooth the conveyancing process.

I've recently bought a leasehold flat in South Ruislip. Do I have any liability for service charges relating to a period prior to 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. However, your landlord may still be able to take action to forfeit the lease. A critical element of leasehold conveyancing for your conveyancer to be sure 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).

Following years of correspondence we are unable to agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in South Ruislip. Does the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal have jurisdiction to calculate the appropriate figures?

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

An example of a Lease Extension case for a South Ruislip property is Flat 72 Queens Walk in January 2013. The Tribunals calculated the premium payable to be £22,090. This case was in relation to 1 flat. The the number of years remaining on the existing lease(s) was 53.26 years.

When it comes to leasehold conveyancing in South Ruislip what are the most common lease defects?

There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in South Ruislip. Most leases is drafted differently and legal mistakes in the legal wording can result in certain clauses are missing. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:

• Repairing obligations to or maintain elements of the building
• A duty to insure the building
• A provision for the recovery of money spent for the benefit of another party.
• Maintenance charge proportions which don’t add up to the correct percentage

A defective lease can cause issues when trying to sell a property as they can affect a potential buyer’s ability to obtain a mortgage. Barclays , The Royal Bank of Scotland, and Platform Home Loans Ltd all have express conveyancing instructions when it comes to what is expected in a lease. If a mortgage lender believes that the lease does not cover certain provisions they may refuse to grant the mortgage, forcing the purchaser to withdraw.

I purchased a garden flat in South Ruislip, conveyancing was carried out in 1999. How much will my lease extension cost? Similar flats in South Ruislip with a long lease are worth £234,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £45 invoiced every year. The lease comes to an end on 21st October 2095

With 69 years unexpired we estimate the price of your lease extension to span between £12,400 and £14,200 plus costs.

The suggested premium range that we have given is a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we are not able to provide a more accurate figure in the absence of detailed investigations. Do not use the figures in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There may be other concerns that need to be taken into account and clearly you should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. You should not move forward placing reliance on this information before getting professional advice.