I only have Fifty years remaining on my flat in Strawberry Hill. I am keen to get lease extension but my freeholder is missing. 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 granted an extra 90 years by the Court. However, you will be required to demonstrate that you have done all that could be expected to find the freeholder. On the whole a specialist would be helpful to carry out a search and to produce a report which can be accepted by the court as evidence that the landlord can not be located. It is advisable to get professional help from a conveyancer both on devolving into the landlord’s disappearance and the vesting order request to the County Court covering Strawberry Hill.

Due to complete next month on a basement flat in Strawberry Hill. Conveyancing solicitors assured me that they will have a report out to me tomorrow. What should I be looking out for?

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

• You should receive a copy of the lease

Details of the parties to the lease, for example these could be the leaseholder (you), head lessor, freeholder

The total extent of the demise. This will be the flat itself but could also include a loft or basement if applicable.

You need to be told what constitutes a Nuisance in the lease

You should have a good understanding of the insurance provisions

Whether the landlord has obligations to ensure rights of quiet enjoyment over your premises and do you know what it means in practice?

Responsibility for repairing the window frames For a comprehensive list of information to be contained in your report on your leasehold property in Strawberry Hill please ask your lawyer in advance of your conveyancing in Strawberry Hill

I am tempted by the attractive purchase price for a two maisonettes in Strawberry Hill both have in the region of fifty years left on the lease term. Do I need to be concerned?

A lease is a legal document that entitles you to use the premises for a prescribed time frame. As the lease shortens the value of the lease reduces and results in it becoming more costly to acquire a lease extension. This is why it is advisable to extend the lease term. Sometimes it is difficult to sell a property with a short lease because mortgage companies less inclined to grant a loan on such properties. Lease enfranchisement can be a protracted process. We advise that you get professional help from a solicitor and surveyor with experience in this arena

Do you have any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Strawberry Hill with the purpose of expediting the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Strawberry Hill can be reduced where you instruct lawyers as soon as you market your property and request that they start to collate the leasehold information needed by the purchasers’ solicitors.
• Many landlords or managing agents in Strawberry Hill charge for supplying management packs for a leasehold premises. You or your lawyers should discover the fee that they propose to charge. The management pack sought as soon as you have a buyer, thus reducing delays. The average time it takes to obtain the necessary information is three weeks. It is the most frequent cause of delay in leasehold conveyancing in Strawberry Hill.

Some Strawberry Hill leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this applies to your lease, it would be prudent to place the estate agents on notice to make sure that the purchasers obtain bank and professional references. The bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are financially capable of paying 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 buyers or their solicitors.

If you have had conflict with your freeholder or managing agents it is essential that these are resolved prior to the flat being marketed. The buyers and their solicitors will be warry about purchasing a property where a dispute is unresolved. You will have to accept that you will have to pay any arrears of service charge or settle 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 details of the dispute to the purchasers, but it is clearly preferable to present the dispute as over as opposed to unresolved.

If you have the benefit of shareholding in the Management Company, you should make sure that you are holding the original share certificate. Arranging a duplicate share certificate is often a lengthy process and delays many a Strawberry Hill home move. Where a new share certificate is necessary, do contact the company director and secretary or managing agents (if relevant) for this sooner rather than later.

If all goes to plan we aim to complete the sale of our £200000 flat in Strawberry Hill next Wednesday . The freeholder has quoted £360 for Certificate of Compliance, building insurance schedule and previous years service charge statements. Is the landlord entitled to charge an administration fee for a flat conveyance in Strawberry Hill?

Strawberry Hill conveyancing on leasehold apartments usually results in fees being levied by management companies :

• Answering pre-exchange enquiries
• Where consent is required before sale in Strawberry Hill
• 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 Strawberry Hill leasehold premises is £350. For Strawberry Hill 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 supply answers.

I have attempted and failed to negotiate with my landlord to extend my lease without any joy. Can one apply to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal? Can you recommend a Strawberry Hill conveyancing firm to assist?

Most definitely. We can put you in touch with a Strawberry Hill conveyancing firm who can help.

An example of a Lease Extension case for a Strawberry Hill flat 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 affected 1 flat. The the number of years remaining on the existing lease(s) was 60.45 years.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Strawberry Hill