I only have 68 years left on my lease in Spitalfields. I now wish to get lease extension but my landlord is can not be found. What are my options?

If you qualify, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can submit an application to the County Court for an order to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will enable the lease to be extended by the Court. However, you will be required to demonstrate that you or your lawyers have used your best endeavours to find the landlord. For most situations an enquiry agent should be helpful to carry out a search and prepare a report to be used as evidence that the freeholder can not be located. It is advisable to get professional help from a solicitor in relation to proving the landlord’s disappearance and the application to the County Court covering Spitalfields.

Looking forward to exchange soon on a ground floor flat in Spitalfields. Conveyancing solicitors inform me that they are sending me a report within the next couple of days. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?

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

• Details of the parties to the lease, for example these could be the leaseholder (you), head lessor, landlord
• Does the lease require carpeting throughout thus preventing wood flooring?
• You need to be told what counts as a Nuisance in the lease
• An explanation as to the provision in the lease to pay service charges - with regard to both the building, and the more general rights a leaseholder has
• Whether your lease has a provision for a sinking fund?
• Changes to the flat (alterations and additions)
• The landlord’s rights to access the flat you be made aware that your landlord has rights of access and I know how much notice s/he must provide.

I am attracted to a couple of maisonettes in Spitalfields which have in the region of forty five years left on the lease term. Should I regard a short lease as a deal breaker?

There are plenty of short leases in Spitalfields. The lease is a legal document that entitles you to use the property for a period of time. As a lease gets shorter the saleability of the lease reduces and it becomes more costly to acquire a lease extension. For this reason it is advisable to extend the lease term. It is often difficulties arise selling premises with a short lease because mortgage companies less inclined to grant a loan on properties of this type. Lease extension can be a protracted process. We recommend you get professional assistance from a solicitor and surveyor with experience in this field

Do you have any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Spitalfields with the purpose of speeding up the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Spitalfields can be reduced if you get in touch lawyers the minute your agents start marketing the property and request that they start to put together the leasehold documentation which will be required by the buyers conveyancers.
• In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s permission? Have you, for example installed wooden flooring? Most leases in Spitalfields state that internal structural changes or installing wooden flooring require a licence issued by the Landlord acquiescing to such alterations. Where you fail to have the paperwork in place you should not communicate with the landlord without contacting your lawyer in the first instance.
• Some Spitalfields leases require Landlord’s consent to the sale and approval of the buyers. If this applies to your lease, you should notify your estate agents 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 annual 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 there is a history of conflict with your freeholder 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 property where there is an ongoing dispute. You will have to accept that you will have to pay 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 historic as opposed to ongoing.
• If you hold a share in a the freehold, you should make sure that you hold the original share certificate. Obtaining a duplicate share certificate is often a lengthy formality and slows down many a Spitalfields home move. If a duplicate share is required, you should approach the company director and secretary or managing agents (where relevant) for this at the earliest opportunity.

If all goes to plan we aim to complete the sale of our £ 425000 maisonette in Spitalfields on Thursday in a week. The freeholder has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Certificate of Compliance, insurance certificate and previous years service charge statements. Is the landlord entitled to charge an administration fee for a leasehold conveyance in Spitalfields?

Spitalfields conveyancing on leasehold flats often involves the purchaser’s lawyer submitting enquiries for the landlord to answer. Although the landlord is not legally bound to address such questions most will be content to do so. They are at liberty invoice a reasonable charge for answering questions or supplying documentation. There is no set fee. The average costs for the information that you are referring to is £350, in some situations it exceeds £800. The management information fee demanded by the landlord must be accompanied by a summary of entitlements and obligations in relation to administration fees, without which the invoice is technically not due. In reality you have no choice but to pay whatever is demanded should you wish to complete the sale of your home.

I have attempted and failed to negotiate with my landlord for a lease extension without getting anywhere. Can the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal decide on such matters? Can you recommend a Spitalfields conveyancing firm to act on my behalf?

Where there is a missing freeholder or if there is disagreement about what the lease extension should cost, under the relevant statutes you can apply to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal to decide the amount due.

An example of a Freehold Enfranchisement matter before the tribunal for a Spitalfields premises is 1-41 Royal Tower Lodge 40 Cartwright Street in April 2013. the tribunal adding the agreed value of capitalised ground rents and the reversion the price to be paid for the freehold was £1,187,000 This case related to 41 flats. The unexpired term was 107 years.

Spitalfields Leasehold Conveyancing - A selection of Questions you should consider Prior to buying

Plenty Spitalfields leasehold apartments will have a service charge for the upkeep of the block invoiced on behalf of the landlord. Should you purchase the flat you will have to meet this charge, normally periodically accross the year. This could be anything from a few hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for large purpose-built blocks. In all likelihood there will be a ground rent for you to pay yearly, this is usually not a large figure, say approximately £25-£75 but you need to enquire as sometimes it could be prohibitively expensive.