My fiance and I may need to rent out our Southborough 1st floor flat temporarily due to a new job. We instructed a Southborough conveyancing practice in 2002 but they have closed and we did not have the foresight to get any guidance as to whether the lease allows us to sublet. How do we find out?

Even though your last Southborough conveyancing solicitor is no longer available you can review your lease to see if it allows you to sublet the apartment. The accepted inference is that if the deeds are non-specific, subletting is allowed. Quite often there is a prerequisite that you need to obtain permission via your landlord or some other party prior to subletting. This means that you cannot sublet without first obtaining consent. The consent should not be unreasonably turned down. If your lease does not allow you to sublet you will need to ask your landlord if they are willing to waive this restriction.

There are only Fifty years left on my lease in Southborough. I now wish to get lease extension but my landlord is missing. What options are available to me?

If you qualify, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the County Court for an order to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will mean that your lease can be granted an extra 90 years by the magistrate. However, you will be required to demonstrate that you or your lawyers have used your best endeavours to locate the lessor. On the whole a specialist should be helpful to try and locate and to produce a report to be accepted by the court as proof that the freeholder can not be located. It is advisable to get professional help from a conveyancer in relation to investigating the landlord’s absence and the application to the County Court overseeing Southborough.

Expecting to complete next month on a leasehold property in Southborough. Conveyancing solicitors assured me that they are sending me a report on Monday. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?

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

• Does the lease require carpeting throughout thus preventing wood flooring?

I am tempted by the attractive purchase price for a couple of flats in Southborough both have in the region of forty five years unexpired on the leases. Will this present a problem?

A lease is a right to use the property for a prescribed time frame. As a lease shortens the marketability of the lease reduces and results in it becoming more expensive to acquire a lease extension. This is why it is generally wise to increase the term of the lease. More often than not it is difficult to sell a property with a short lease as mortgage lenders less inclined to grant a loan on properties of this type. Lease extension can be a protracted process. We advise that you seek professional assistance from a conveyancer and surveyor with experience in this arena

Following months of negotiations we cannot agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in Southborough. Can we issue an application to the Residential Property Tribunal Service?

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

An example of a Lease Extension case for a Southborough flat is 1 Southlands Court Southlands Road in September 2013. The Leasehold Valuation Tribunal determined that the premium to be paid by the tenant on the grant of a new lease, in accordance with section 56 and Schedule 13 of the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 was £30,541 This case affected 1 flat. The remaining number of years on the lease was 50.57 years.

What makes a Southborough lease unacceptable for security purposes?

There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Southborough. All leases is drafted differently and legal mistakes in the legal wording can sometimes mean that certain provisions are wrong. The following missing provisions could result in a defective lease:

• A provision to repair to or maintain parts of the property
• Insurance obligations
• A provision for the recovery of money spent for the benefit of another party.
• Service charge per centages that don't add up correctly leaving a shortfall

You could encounter a problem when selling your property if you have a defective lease primarily because it impacts on the ability to obtain a mortgage on the property. Santander, Barnsley Building Society, and Bank of Ireland all have express conveyancing instructions when it comes to what is expected in a lease. Where a lender has been advised by their lawyers that the lease is problematic they may refuse to provide security, forcing the purchaser to withdraw.