I have recently realised that I have Sixty One years left on my lease in Wembley Park. I need to extend my lease but my landlord is absent. What are my options?

If 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 granted an extra 90 years by the Court. You will be obliged to prove that you or your lawyers have made all reasonable attempts to locate the freeholder. On the whole an enquiry agent should be useful to conduct investigations and to produce an expert document which can be accepted by the court as evidence that the freeholder is indeed missing. It is wise to seek advice from a conveyancer both on proving the landlord’s absence and the vesting order request to the County Court covering Wembley Park.

I have just started marketing my 2 bed flat in Wembley Park.Conveyancing is yet to be initiated but I have just received a quarterly maintenance charge demand – Do I pay up?

It best that you pay 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 unless 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. Having a clear account will assist your cause and will leave you no worse off financially.

I own a leasehold flat in Wembley Park. Conveyancing and Chelsea Building Society mortgage organised. A letter has just been received from someone claiming to own the freehold. It included a demand for arrears of ground rent dating back to 1997. The conveyancing solicitor in Wembley Park who previously acted has long since retired.Do I pay?

First contact the Land Registry to make sure that the individual claiming to own the freehold is indeed the registered owner of the freehold reversion. There is no need to incur the fees of a Wembley Park conveyancing solicitor to do this as you can do this on the Land Registry website for less than a fiver. Rest assured that regardless, even if this is the legitimate freeholder, under the Limitation Act 1980 the limitation period for recovery of ground rent is six years.

I am tempted by the attractive purchase price for a two flats in Wembley Park both have about 50 years unexpired on the leases. Do I need to be concerned?

There are plenty of short leases in Wembley Park. The lease is a legal document that entitles you to use the premises for a period of time. As the lease gets shorter the marketability of the lease decreases and it becomes more expensive to extend the lease. For this reason it is advisable to extend the lease term. Sometimes it is difficult to sell a property with a short lease because mortgage lenders may be reluctant to lend money on properties of this type. Lease extension can be a difficult process. We advise that you seek professional assistance from a conveyancer and surveyor with experience in this arena

Our conveyancer has advised that he intends to complete and exchange simultaneously on the disposal of our £ 200000 flat in Wembley Park next Thursday . The freeholder has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Certificate of Compliance, insurance certificate and 3 years service charge statements. Is the landlord entitled to charge exorbitant fees for a flat conveyance in Wembley Park?

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

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

I have had difficulty in trying to purchase the freehold in Wembley Park. Can this matter be resolved via the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal?

You certainly can. We can put you in touch with a Wembley Park conveyancing firm who can help.

An example of a Lease Extension matter before the tribunal for a Wembley Park premises is Ground Floor Flat 69 Clifton Avenue in March 2012. the Tribunal determined that the premium payable for the new lease was £5,932 This case related to 1 flat. The unexpired lease term was 76.06 years.

I purchased a 1 bedroom flat in Wembley Park, conveyancing formalities finalised 3 years ago. Can you let me have an estimate of the premium that my landlord can legally expect in return for granting a renewal of my lease? Similar properties in Wembley Park with an extended lease are worth £206,000. The ground rent is £55 invoiced annually. The lease expires on 21st October 2101

With only 75 years unexpired we estimate the price of your lease extension to range between £8,600 and £9,800 plus costs.

The suggested premium range that we have given is a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we cannot give you a more accurate figure in the absence of comprehensive investigations. Do not use this information in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There are no doubt other concerns that need to be considered and you obviously want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. You should not take any other action based on this information before getting professional advice.