I have recently realised that I have Seventy years remaining on my flat in Swiss Cottage. I now want to extend my lease but my landlord is absent. What options are available to me?

If you meet the appropriate requirements, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the County Court for for permission to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will enable the lease to be lengthened by the Court. However, you will be required to demonstrate that you have used your best endeavours to track down the lessor. In some cases an enquiry agent should be useful to conduct investigations and to produce an expert document which can be used as evidence that the landlord can not be located. It is advisable to get professional help from a conveyancer in relation to investigating the landlord’s disappearance and the vesting order request to the County Court covering Swiss Cottage.

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

Due to sign contracts shortly on a leasehold property in Swiss Cottage. Conveyancing solicitors have said that they report fully on Monday. What should I be looking out for?

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

• The length of the lease term You should be advised as what happens when the lease expires, and aware of the importance of the 80 year mark
• Details of the parties to the lease, for example these could be the leaseholder (you), head lessor, landlord
• You should have a good understanding of the insurance provisions
• Repair and maintenance of the flat
• 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
• What the implications are if you breach a clause of your lease?

For details of the information to be contained in your report on your leasehold property in Swiss Cottage please enquire of your lawyer in ahead of your conveyancing in Swiss Cottage

I am tempted by the attractive purchase price for a couple of flats in Swiss Cottage both have approximately 50 years remaining on the leases. Will this present a problem?

A lease is a legal document that entitles you to use the property for a period of time. As the lease gets shorter the marketability of the lease deteriorate and it becomes more costly to extend the lease. This is why it is often a good idea to extend the lease term. More often than not it is difficult to sell a property with a short lease as mortgage lenders may be reluctant to lend money on such properties. Lease extension can be a protracted process. We advise that you seek professional assistance from a conveyancer and surveyor with experience in this field

If all goes to plan we aim to complete the sale of our £ 125000 flat in Swiss Cottage next week. The freeholder has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Certificate of Compliance, building insurance schedule and previous years statements of service charge. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge such fees for a leasehold conveyance in Swiss Cottage?

Swiss Cottage conveyancing on leasehold maisonettes normally involves fees being levied by landlords agents :

• Addressing pre-exchange enquiries
• Where consent is required before sale in Swiss Cottage
• 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 Swiss Cottage leasehold premises is £350. For Swiss Cottage 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 provide the information.

After years of negotiations we are unable to agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in Swiss Cottage. Does the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal have jurisdiction to calculate the appropriate figures?

Most certainly. We are happy to put you in touch with a Swiss Cottage conveyancing firm who can help.

An example of a Lease Extension matter before the tribunal for a Swiss Cottage property is First Floor Flat 20 Fitzjohns Avenue in July 2014. the Tribunal decided that the premiums to be paid for new leases in respect of the Raised Ground Floor Flat and the First Floor Flat were to be calculated as: Raised Ground Floor: £765,175.14 First Floor: £601,617.77 This case related to 2 flats. The remaining number of years on the lease was 16.83 and 16.43.

What makes a Swiss Cottage lease unmortgageable?

Leasehold conveyancing in Swiss Cottage is not unique. Most leases are individual and legal mistakes in the legal wording can sometimes mean that certain sections are not included. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:

• A provision to repair to or maintain parts of the property
• A duty to insure the building
• A provision for the recovery of money spent for the benefit of another party.
• Maintenance charge proportions which don’t add up to the correct percentage

You may encounter difficulties when selling your property if you have a defective lease as they can affect a potential buyer’s ability to obtain a mortgage. Accord Mortgages Ltd, Virgin Money, and Nottingham Building Society all have very detailed conveyancing instructions when it comes to what is expected in a lease. If a mortgage lender believes that the lease is problematic they may refuse to grant the mortgage, obliging the buyer to pull out.

Swiss Cottage Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - Examples of Queries before buying