I only have Fifty years remaining on my flat in Tottenham Hale. I need to get lease extension but my landlord is absent. What are my options?

On the basis that you meet the appropriate requirements, 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 enable the lease to be extended by the Court. However, you will be required to demonstrate that you or your lawyers have done all that could be expected to find the landlord. 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 freeholder is indeed missing. It is advisable to get professional help from a property lawyer both on investigating the landlord’s absence and the application to the County Court covering Tottenham Hale.

My wife and I purchased a leasehold house in Tottenham Hale. Conveyancing and Nottingham Building Society mortgage went though with no issue. I have received a letter from someone claiming to own the freehold. Attached was a demand for arrears of ground rent dating back to 1991. The conveyancing solicitor in Tottenham Hale who previously acted has now retired.What should I do?

The first thing you should do is contact HMLR to be sure that this person is indeed the registered owner of the freehold reversion. It is not necessary to incur the fees of a Tottenham Hale conveyancing solicitor to do this as you can do this on the Land Registry website for less than a fiver. You should note that regardless, even if this is the rightful landlord, under the Limitation Act 1980 the limitation period for recovery of ground rent is six years.

I am attracted to a two maisonettes in Tottenham Hale both have approximately fifty years remaining on the leases. Will this present a problem?

There are no two ways about it. A leasehold apartment in Tottenham Hale is a wasting asset as a result of the shortening lease. The nearer the lease gets to zero years unexpired, the more it adversely affects the salability of the premises. The majority of purchasers and mortgage companies, leases with under 75 years become less and less marketable. On a more upbeat 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 property 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 Tottenham Hale 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.

I am a negotiator for a reputable estate agent office in Tottenham Hale where we have witnessed a number of leasehold sales jeopardised due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given conflicting advice from local Tottenham Hale conveyancing firms. Can you clarify whether the vendor of a flat can start the lease extension formalities for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

As long as the seller has been the owner for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to kick-start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. The benefit of this is that the buyer can avoid having to sit tight for 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed before, or at the same time as completion of the sale.

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 buyer.

Completion in due on our sale of a £475000 flat in Tottenham Hale next Friday . The management company has quoted £384 for Certificate of Compliance, insurance certificate and 3 years statements of service charge. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge exorbitant fees for a leasehold conveyance in Tottenham Hale?

For the majority of leasehold sales in Tottenham Hale conveyancing will involve, questions about the management of a building inevitably needing to be answered directly by the freeholder or its agent, this includes :

• Answering pre-exchange enquiries
• Where consent is required before sale in Tottenham Hale
• Supplying insurance information
• Deeds of covenant upon sale
• Registering of the assignment of the change of lessee after a sale

Your lawyer will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for Tottenham Hale leasehold premises is £350. For Tottenham Hale 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 negotiations we are unable to agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in Tottenham Hale. Does the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal have jurisdiction to calculate the appropriate figures?

if there is a missing landlord or where there is dispute about what the lease extension should cost, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 it is possible to make an application to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) to make a decision on the amount due.

An example of a Freehold Enfranchisement decision for a Tottenham Hale residence is 22 Wakefield Road in January 2012. Following a vesting order Clerkenwell and Shoreditch County Court under section 26 of the Leasehold Reform,Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 on 9th May 2011 the Tribunal decided that the price that the Applicant for the freehold interest should pay is £17,400 This case was in relation to 2 flats. The the number of years remaining on the existing lease(s) was 74.13 years.