I only have Sixty One years unexpired on my lease in St Paul's Cray. I need 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 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 extended by the Court. You will be obliged to prove that you or your lawyers have made all reasonable attempts to find the lessor. On the whole an enquiry agent should be helpful to conduct investigations and to produce an expert document which can be used as evidence that the freeholder is indeed missing. It is wise to seek advice from a conveyancer in relation to devolving into the landlord’s absence and the application to the County Court covering St Paul's Cray.

You should [be sent a copy of the lease|receive a copy of the lease]

Looking forward to sign contracts shortly on a garden flat in St Paul's Cray. Conveyancing solicitors have said that they report fully next week. What should I be looking out for?

The report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in St Paul's Cray should include some of the following:

• Do you need to have carpet in the flat or are you allowed wood flooring?
• Does the lease prevent you from subletting the flat, or having a home office for business
• 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
• Changes to the flat (alterations and additions)
• Whether the landlord has obligations to ensure rights of quiet enjoyment over your premises and do you know what it means in practice?
• The landlord’s obligations to repair and maintain the building. It is important that you know who is responsible for the repair and maintenance of every part of the building
• Responsibility for repairing the window frames

For details of the information to be contained in your report on your leasehold property in St Paul's Cray please enquire of your solicitor in advance of your conveyancing in St Paul's Cray

Estate agents have just been given the go-ahead to market my ground floor apartment in St Paul's Cray.Conveyancing lawyers have not yet been instructed but I have just had a yearly maintenance charge demand – what should I do?

Your conveyancing lawyer is likely to suggest that you should pay the service charge 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 managing agents 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. Having a clear account will assist your cause and will leave you no worse off financially.

I am tempted by the attractive purchase price for a two flats in St Paul's Cray both have approximately forty five years remaining on the leases. Will this present a problem?

There are no two ways about it. A leasehold flat in St Paul's Cray is a wasting asset as a result of the shortening lease. The nearer the lease gets to its expiry date, the more it reduces the marketability of the premises. For most buyers and mortgage companies, leases with less than 75 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 property 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 premises 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 St Paul's Cray 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 You may find he or she is happy to negotiate informally and willing to consider your offer straight off, without having to involve anyone else. This will save you time and money and it could help you reach a lower price on the lease. 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.

Our conveyancer has advised that he intends to complete and exchange simultaneously on our sale of a £ 425000 apartment in St Paul's Cray in nine days. The freeholder has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Certificate of Compliance, building insurance schedule and 3 years statements of service charge. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge exorbitant fees for a flat conveyance in St Paul's Cray?

St Paul's Cray conveyancing on leasehold apartments typically necessitates fees being raised by managing agents :

• Completing conveyancing due diligence questions
• Where consent is required before sale in St Paul's Cray
• Copies of the building insurance and schedule
• 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 Paul's Cray leasehold property is £350. For St Paul's Cray 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 obliged to provide the information.

I own a ground flat in St Paul's Cray. Given that I can not reach agreement with the landlord, can the Leasehold valuation Tribunal make a decision on the sum payable for the purchase of the freehold?

Most definitely. We can put you in touch with a St Paul's Cray conveyancing firm who can help.

An example of a Lease Extension case for a St Paul's Cray property 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.

Leasehold Conveyancing in St Paul's Cray - Examples of Questions you should ask before Purchasing

Its a good idea to find out as much as you can regarding the managing agents as they can either make your living at the property much simpler or uncomfortable. Being a leasehold owner you are frequently in the clutches of the managing agents from a financial perspective and when it comes to practical matters like the cleanliness of the communal areas. Ask prospective neighbours if they are happy with their management. On a final note, find out the dates that the service fees are due to the relevant party and specifically what it includes. If a St Paul's Cray lease has fewer than eighty years it will have adverse implications on the value of the property. Check with your mortgage company that they are willing to go ahead with the loan given the lease term. A short lease means that you will probably require a lease extension at some point and it is worth finding out what this will be. Remember, in most cases you will be required to have been the owner of the property for two years in order to be legally able to carry out a lease extension.