There are only Sixty One years remaining on my flat in St Margarets. I now wish to extend my lease but my freeholder 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 for permission 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 prove that you have used your best endeavours to locate the landlord. For most situations a specialist may be helpful to carry out a search and to produce an expert document which can be accepted by the court as evidence that the freeholder is indeed missing. It is advisable to get professional help from a conveyancer both on devolving into the landlord’s absence and the vesting order request to the County Court covering St Margarets.

I am hoping to sign contracts shortly on a ground floor flat in St Margarets. Conveyancing lawyers inform me that they are sending me a report next week. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?

Your report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in St Margarets should include some of the following:

• You should receive a copy of the lease

The length of the lease term You should be advised as what happens when the lease ends, and informed of the importance of the 80 year mark

Does the lease prevent you from subletting the property, or having a home office for business

You should be told what constitutes 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

You should have a good understanding of the insurance provisions

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. For details of the information to be included in your report on your leasehold property in St Margarets please enquire of your lawyer in advance of your conveyancing in St Margarets

Estate agents have just been given the go-ahead to market my 2 bed apartment in St Margarets.Conveyancing has not commenced but I have just had a quarterly service charge invoice – what should I do?

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 am attracted to a couple of apartments in St Margarets which have about forty five years left on the leases. should I be concerned?

A lease is a right to use the property for a period of time. As a lease shortens the marketability of the lease deteriorate and it becomes more costly to extend the lease. For this reason it is advisable to extend the lease term. Sometimes it is difficult to sell a property with a short lease because mortgage lenders may be reluctant to lend money on properties of this type. Lease extension can be a protracted process. We advise that you seek professional help from a conveyancer and surveyor with experience in this area

Our conveyancer has advised that he intends to complete and exchange simultaneously on the disposal of our £400000 flat in St Margarets next week. The management company has quoted £420 for Landlord’s certificate, building insurance schedule and 3 years service charge statements. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge an administration fee for a flat conveyance in St Margarets?

St Margarets conveyancing on leasehold flats normally results in fees being levied by managing agents :

• Addressing pre-contract enquiries
• Where consent is required before sale in St Margarets
• Supplying insurance information
• Deeds of covenant upon sale
• Registering of the assignment of the change of lessee after a sale

Your conveyancer will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for St Margarets leasehold property is £350. For St Margarets 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.

I inherited a a ground floor purpose built flat in St Margarets. In the absence of agreement between myself and the freeholder, can the Leasehold valuation Tribunal make a decision on the premium payable for the purchase of the freehold?

in cases where there is a missing freeholder or if there is disagreement about the premium for a lease extension, under the relevant legislation it is possible to make an application to the LVT to calculate the amount due.

An example of a Lease Extension case for a St Margarets residence is Ground Floor Flat 91 Bath Road in May 2009. in a case where the freeholder could not be traced, the Brentford County Court ordered that the Lease be surrendered in return for the grant of a new lease of the Premises at a premium determined by the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal. The tribunal concluded that the price payable by the Applicant for the new lease of the premises be £15,900 This case related to 1 flat. The the unexpired residue of the current lease was 60.45 years.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in St Margarets