Jane (my partner) and I may need to let out our St Giles garden flat for a while due to a career opportunity. We instructed a St Giles conveyancing practice in 2001 but they have closed and we did not think at the time get any advice as to whether the lease prohibits the subletting of the flat. How do we find out?

Your lease dictates relations between the landlord and you the leaseholder; in particular, it will say if subletting is banned, or permitted but only subject to certain conditions. The rule is that if the lease contains no expres ban or restriction, subletting is allowed. Most leases in St Giles do not contain subletting altogether – such a provision would adversely affect the market value the flat. In most cases there is a basic requirement that the owner notifies the freeholder, possibly sending a duplicate of the tenancy agreement.

Having checked my lease I have discovered that there are only 68 years left on my lease in St Giles. I now wish to get lease extension but my freeholder is absent. What options are available to me?

On the basis that 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 enable the lease to be extended by the magistrate. You will be obliged to prove that you have made all reasonable attempts to locate the freeholder. In some cases an enquiry agent may be helpful to conduct investigations and to produce an expert document which can be used as proof that the landlord can not be located. It is wise to seek advice from a conveyancer in relation to proving the landlord’s disappearance and the application to the County Court covering St Giles.

I am employed by a busy estate agency in St Giles where we have experienced a number of flat sales put at risk as a result of leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given contradictory information from local St Giles conveyancing solicitors. Please can you shed some light as to whether the vendor of a flat can commence the lease extension formalities for the buyer?

Provided that the seller has been the owner 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. This means that the buyer can avoid having to wait 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 disposal of the property.

An alternative approach is to extend the lease informally by agreement with the landlord 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 advice for leasehold conveyancing in St Giles with the aim of saving time on the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in St Giles can be avoided where you get in touch lawyers as soon as your agents start advertising the property and request that they start to collate the leasehold documentation needed by the purchasers’ lawyers.
• Many freeholders or managing agents in St Giles levy fees for providing management packs for a leasehold premises. You or your lawyers should enquire as to the fee that they propose to charge. The management pack can be applied for as soon as you have a buyer, thus accelerating the process. The typical amount of time it takes to obtain the necessary information is three weeks. It is the most frequent reason for delay in leasehold conveyancing in St Giles.

In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s consent? In particular have you laid down wooden flooring? Most leases in St Giles state that internal structural alterations or laying down wooden flooring necessitate a licence from the Landlord approving such changes. If you fail to have the paperwork to hand you should not communicate with the landlord without checking with your lawyer first.

If you are supposed to have a share in the freehold, you should make sure that you are holding the original share certificate. Organising a replacement share certificate is often a time consuming formality and delays many a St Giles home move. Where a duplicate share certificate is required, do contact the company director and secretary or managing agents (where applicable) for this sooner rather than later.

You may think that you are aware of the number of years remaining on your lease but you should verify this via your solicitors. A buyer’s conveyancer will be unlikely to recommend their client to to exchange contracts if the remaining number of years is below 80 years. It is therefore important at an early stage that you consider whether the lease requires a lease extension. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your premises on the market for sale.

Our conveyancer has advised that he intends to complete and exchange simultaneously on the disposal of our £475000 garden flat in St Giles in just under a week. The managing agents has quoted £312 for Landlord’s certificate, insurance certificate and 3 years statements of service charge. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge such fees for a flat conveyance in St Giles?

St Giles conveyancing on leasehold flats normally involves fees being invoiced by management companies :

• Addressing conveyancing due diligence enquiries
• Where consent is required before sale in St Giles
• Supplying insurance information
• Deeds of covenant upon sale
• Registering of the assignment of the change of lessee after a sale

Your solicitor will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for St Giles leasehold premises is £350. For St Giles 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 supply the information.

Following months of dialogue we are unable to agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in St Giles. Can we issue an application to the Residential Property Tribunal Service?

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

An example of a Lease Extension matter before the tribunal for a St Giles residence is Flat 89 Trinity Court Grays Inn Road in February 2013. the Tribunal found that the premium to be paid by the tenant on the grant of a new lease, in accordance with section 56 and Schedule 13 to the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 should be £36,229. This case affected 1 flat. The the unexpired residue of the current lease was 66.8 years.