Having had my offer accepted I require leasehold conveyancing in South Woodford. Before diving in I would like to find out the unexpired term of the lease.

Assuming the lease is recorded at the land registry - and 99.9% are in South Woodford - 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.

I own a leasehold house in South Woodford. Conveyancing and The Royal Bank of Scotland mortgage went though with no issue. A letter has just been received from someone saying they have taken over the freehold. Attached was a ground rent demand for rent dating back to 1997. The conveyancing solicitor in South Woodford who previously acted has now retired.What should I do?

First contact HMLR to be sure that this person is indeed the registered owner of the freehold reversion. There is no need to instruct a South Woodford conveyancing lawyer to do this as you can do this on the Land Registry website for less than a fiver. Rest assured that in any event, even if this is the rightful landlord, under the Limitation Act 1980 the limitation period for recovery of ground rent is six years.

I am attracted to a two flats in South Woodford both have approximately forty five years remaining on the lease term. should I be concerned?

There are no two ways about it. A leasehold apartment in South Woodford is a deteriorating asset as a result of the shortening lease. The closer the lease gets to zero years unexpired, the more it reduces the marketability of the premises. For most purchasers and banks, leases with less than eighty years become less and less attractive. On a more positive note, leaseholders can extend their leases by serving a Section 42 Notice. One stipulation is that they must have owned the premises 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 property 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 South Woodford 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 They may agree to a smaller lump sum and an increase in the ground rent, but to shorter extension terms in return. 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 am employed by a long established estate agent office in South Woodford where we see a number of flat sales put at risk as a result of leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given conflicting advice from local South Woodford conveyancing solicitors. Please can you clarify whether the vendor of a flat can instigate 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. This means that the proposed purchaser can avoid having to wait 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done prior to, 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 purchaser.

Our conveyancer has advised that he intends to complete and exchange simultaneously on the disposal of our £300000 maisonette in South Woodford in just under a week. The freeholder has quoted £396 for Certificate of Compliance, building insurance schedule and 3 years service charge statements. Is the landlord entitled to charge such fees for a flat conveyance in South Woodford?

South Woodford conveyancing on leasehold apartments often involves the buyer’s solicitor submitting enquiries for the landlord to answer. Although the landlord is under no legal obligation to address these enquiries most will be content to assist. They are entitled levy a reasonable administration fee for answering questions or supplying documentation. There is no upper cap for such fees. The average costs for the information that you are referring to is £350, in some transactions it exceeds £800. The administration charge levied by the landlord must be sent together with a synopsis of entitlements and obligations in respect of administration fees, without which the invoice is technically not due. In reality one has no choice but to pay whatever is requested of you should you wish to exchange contracts with the buyer.

Following years of negotiations we are unable to agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in South Woodford. Can we issue an application to the Residential Property Tribunal Service?

if there is a absentee freeholder or if there is disagreement about what the lease extension should cost, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 it is possible to make an application to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal to judgment on the premium.

An example of a Lease Extension decision for a South Woodford premises is 135 Maybank Road in January 2013. The Tribunal determined that the price to be paid by the tenants for the grant of a new lease is £10,592 This case was in relation to 1 flat. The the unexpired residue of the current lease was 71.2 years.

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Lease Extensions in South Woodford