My fiance and I may need to rent out our Wallington basement flat temporarily due to taking a sabbatical. We instructed a Wallington conveyancing firm in 2002 but they have since shut and we did not think at the time seek any guidance as to whether the lease allows us to sublet. How do we find out?

Notwithstanding that your previous Wallington conveyancing lawyer is no longer available you can review your lease to check if you are permitted to let out the apartment. The accepted inference is that if the lease is silent, subletting is permitted. Quite often there is a prerequisite that you are obliged to seek permission via your landlord or some other party before subletting. The net result is that you cannot sublet in the absence of first obtaining consent. Such consent should not be unreasonably refused ore delayed. If your lease prohibits you from letting out the property you should ask your landlord for their consent.

I’m about to sell my 2 bed apartment in Wallington.Conveyancing is yet to be initiated but I have just received a half-yearly maintenance charge demand – Do I pay up?

Your conveyancing lawyer is likely to suggest that you should clear the invoice 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 management companies will not acknowledge the buyer until 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. This will smooth the conveyancing process.

Can you provide any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Wallington with the aim of speeding up the sale process?

• Much of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Wallington can be reduced where you instruct lawyers as soon as your agents start advertising the property and ask them to put together the leasehold information which will be required by the buyers representatives.
• Many landlords or managing agents in Wallington charge for supplying management packs for a leasehold premises. You or your lawyers should find out the fee that they propose to charge. The management information sought as soon as you have a buyer, thus reducing delays. The typical amount of time it takes to receive management information is three weeks. It is the most common cause of frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Wallington.
• A minority of Wallington 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 financial (bank) and professional references. Any bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are able to meet 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 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 slows down many a Wallington home move. If a new share is necessary, you should approach the company director and secretary or managing agents (if relevant) for this sooner rather than later.
• You believe that you know the number of years left on your lease but it would be advisable verify this by asking your conveyancers. A purchaser's lawyer will not be happy to advise their client to where the lease term is less than 80 years. It is therefore essential at an as soon as possible that you consider whether the lease term requires a lease extension. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your premises on the market for sale.

Our conveyancer has advised that he intends to complete and exchange simultaneously on the sale of our £ 300000 maisonette in Wallington next Thursday . The managing agents has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Landlord’s certificate, insurance certificate and 3 years service charge statements. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge exorbitant fees for a leasehold conveyance in Wallington?

Wallington conveyancing on leasehold maisonettes usually involves fees being invoiced by management companies :

• Answering pre-contract questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Wallington
• 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 solicitor will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for Wallington leasehold property is £350. For Wallington 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 answers.

I have given up negotiating a lease extension in Wallington. Can the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal adjudicate on premiums?

if there is a missing landlord or if there is disagreement about the premium for a lease extension, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal to calculate the price payable.

An example of a Freehold Enfranchisement decision for a Wallington residence is 21 & 23 Carshalton Grove in May 2009. the Tribunal adopted the figures presented as the premiums payable by the Applicant i.e. a total of £20,750. This case affected 2 flats. The remaining number of years on the lease was 72 years.

What makes a Wallington lease defective?

Leasehold conveyancing in Wallington is not unique. All leases is drafted differently and drafting errors can sometimes mean that certain sections are not included. The following missing provisions could result in a defective lease:

• Repairing obligations to or maintain parts 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

A defective lease will likely cause issues when trying to sell a property primarily because it impacts on the ability to obtain a mortgage on the property. Birmingham Midshires, Barnsley Building Society, and Godiva Mortgages Ltd 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 defective they may refuse to grant the mortgage, forcing the buyer to pull out.

I bought a leasehold flat in Wallington, conveyancing having been completed 2005. Can you give me give me an indication of the likely cost of a lease extension? Similar properties in Wallington with over 90 years remaining are worth £200,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £50 invoiced annually. The lease ends on 21st October 2083

With only 57 years left to run the likely cost is going to be between £21,900 and £25,200 plus professional fees.

The suggested premium range above a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we cannot give you a more accurate figure in the absence of comprehensive investigations. You should not use the figures in tribunal or court proceedings. There are no doubt additional issues that need to be considered and you obviously should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Neither should you take any other action based on this information without first getting professional advice.