There are only 62 years left on my flat in Wembley Park. I am keen to extend my lease but my freeholder is can not be found. What should I do?

On the basis that you qualify, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the County Court for an order to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will enable the lease to be granted an extra 90 years by the Court. However, you will be required to prove that you have used your best endeavours to locate the landlord. On the whole a specialist should be useful to carry out a search and prepare a report which can be used as proof that the freeholder can not be located. It is wise to seek advice from a solicitor in relation to proving the landlord’s disappearance and the application to the County Court overseeing Wembley Park.

Expecting to exchange soon on a ground floor flat in Wembley Park. Conveyancing solicitors have said that they will have a report out to me next week. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?

Your report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in Wembley Park should include some of the following:

• The unexpired lease term You should be advised as what happens when the lease expires, and informed 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

Are pets allowed in the flat?

Ground rent - how much and when you need to pay, and also know whether this will change in the future

You should have a good understanding of the insurance provisions

I don't know whether the lease allows me to alter or improve anything in the flat - you should know whether it applies to all alterations or just structural alteration, and whether consent is required

Whether the landlord has obligations to ensure rights of quiet enjoyment over your premises and do you know what it means in practice? For details of the information to be included in your report on your leasehold property in Wembley Park please enquire of your conveyancer in advance of your conveyancing in Wembley Park

I work for a long established estate agent office in Wembley Park where we have witnessed a few flat sales jeopardised as a result of short leases. I have been given conflicting advice from local Wembley Park conveyancing solicitors. Please can you confirm whether the vendor of a flat can start the lease extension formalities for the buyer?

As long as the seller has owned the lease for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to commence the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. This means that the proposed purchaser need not have to sit tight for 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done before, or simultaneously with completion of the disposal of the property.

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.

Can you provide any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Wembley Park from the perspective of speeding up the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Wembley Park can be reduced where you appoint lawyers the minute your agents start marketing the property and ask them to collate the leasehold information needed by the buyers solicitors.
• In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s consent? Have you, for example installed wooden flooring? Most leases in Wembley Park state that internal structural alterations or installing wooden flooring necessitate a licence from the Landlord consenting to such alterations. Where you fail to have the consents in place do not contact the landlord without checking with your lawyer in the first instance.

A minority of Wembley Park leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this applies to your lease, you should notify your estate agents to make sure that the purchasers obtain financial (bank) and professional references. The bank reference should make it clear that the buyer is financially capable of paying 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 actual amount of the service charge so that they can pass this information on to the purchasers or their solicitors.

If you have had conflict with your freeholder or managing agents it is very important that these are settled before the property is put on the market. The buyers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a property where there is an ongoing dispute. You may have to bite the bullet and discharge any arrears of service charge or resolve the dispute prior to completion of the sale. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled prior to the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You will still have to reveal details of the dispute to the buyers, but it is clearly preferable to present the dispute as historic rather than unresolved.

If you hold a share in a the freehold, you should make sure that you are holding the original share document. Organising a duplicate share certificate is often a time consuming formality and frustrates many a Wembley Park home move. If a new share certificate is required, do contact the company officers or managing agents (if relevant) for this at the earliest opportunity.

Our conveyancer has advised that he intends to complete and exchange simultaneously on the sale of our £475000 maisonette in Wembley Park next week. The freeholder has quoted £300 for Landlord’s certificate, building insurance schedule and 3 years service charge statements. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge exorbitant fees for a leasehold conveyance in Wembley Park?

Wembley Park conveyancing on leasehold flats typically results in administration charges invoiced by freeholders :

• Completing pre-exchange questions
• 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 solicitor 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 supply the information.

I have attempted and failed to negotiate with my landlord to extend my lease without getting anywhere. Can the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal adjudicate on such matters? Can you recommend a Wembley Park conveyancing firm to help?

Where there is a missing landlord or if there is dispute about what the lease extension should cost, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the LVT to assess the sum to be paid.

An example of a Lease Extension case for a Wembley Park property 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 term was 76.06 years.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Wembley Park