Having checked my lease I have discovered that there are only Sixty One years unexpired on my flat in Tulse Hill. I now want to get lease extension but my freeholder is can not be found. What are my options?

On the basis that 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 extended by the Court. You will be obliged to prove that you or your lawyers have made all reasonable attempts to track down the lessor. In some cases a specialist would be helpful to try and locate and prepare a report which can be used as evidence that the freeholder can not be located. It is advisable to get professional help from a property lawyer both on devolving into the landlord’s disappearance and the application to the County Court overseeing Tulse Hill.

My wife and I purchased a leasehold flat in Tulse Hill. Conveyancing and Nationwide Building Society mortgage went though with no issue. I have received a letter from someone claiming to own the freehold. It included a demand for arrears of ground rent dating back to 1991. The conveyancing practitioner in Tulse Hill who acted for me is not around.Do I pay?

First make enquiries of HMLR to make sure that this person is in fact the registered owner of the freehold reversion. There is no need to incur the fees of a Tulse Hill conveyancing solicitor to do this as you can do this on the Land Registry website for a few pound. Rest assured that in any event, even if this is the legitimate freeholder, under the Limitation Act 1980 no more than 6 years of rent can be collected.

I work for a busy estate agency in Tulse Hill where we see a number of flat sales put at risk due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have received conflicting advice from local Tulse Hill conveyancing solicitors. Please can you shed some light as to whether the seller of a flat can start the lease extension formalities for the buyer?

Provided that the seller has owned the lease for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. This means that the buyer can avoid having to wait 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed before, or simultaneously with 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 purchaser.

If all goes to plan we aim to complete the sale of our £275000 garden flat in Tulse Hill in just under a week. The managing agents has quoted £396 for Landlord’s certificate, building insurance schedule and 3 years service charge statements. Is the landlord entitled to charge such fees for a flat conveyance in Tulse Hill?

Tulse Hill conveyancing on leasehold apartments usually necessitates the purchaser’s conveyancer sending questions for the landlord to address. Although the landlord is under no legal obligation to address such questions the majority will be willing to assist. They are at liberty levy a reasonable administration fee for answering enquiries or supplying documentation. There is no set fee. The average fee for the information that you are referring to is over three hundred pounds, in some transactions it exceeds £800. The administration charge required by the landlord must be accompanied by a synopsis of entitlements and obligations in relation to administration charges, without which the invoice is technically not due. In reality you have little option but to pay whatever is demanded should you wish to exchange contracts with the buyer.

Having spent months of dialogue we simply can't agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in Tulse Hill. Does the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal have jurisdiction to calculate the appropriate figures?

in cases where there is a missing landlord or if there is dispute about the premium for a lease extension, under the relevant legislation it is possible to make an application to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) to assess the premium.

An example of a Freehold Enfranchisement decision for a Tulse Hill premises is 8 Deerbrook Road in May 2010. the Tribunal held that the enfranchisement price, in accordance with section 32 and Schedule 6 of the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 was £22,820, payable by the Applicants. By an order of the Lambeth County Court dated 17 June 2009 the case had been transferred to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal for its determination of the premium payable This case related to 3 flats.

What makes a Tulse Hill lease unacceptable for security purposes?

There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Tulse Hill. All leases is drafted differently and drafting errors can result in certain provisions are erroneous. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:

• Repairing obligations to or maintain elements of the property
• A duty to insure the building
• Clauses dealing with recovering service charges for expenditure on the building or common parts.
• Service charge per centages that don't add up correctly leaving a shortfall

You could 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. National Westminster Bank, The Royal Bank of Scotland, and Barclays Direct all have very detailed conveyancing instructions when it comes to what is expected in a lease. Where a lender has been advised by their lawyers that the lease is problematic they may refuse to provide security, obliging the purchaser to pull out.