Having checked my lease I have discovered that there are only Fifty years unexpired on my lease in Wennington. I now want to get lease extension but my landlord is missing. What should I do?

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 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 magistrate. However, you will be required to demonstrate that you have made all reasonable attempts to locate the landlord. In some cases an enquiry agent may be useful to carry out a search and to produce a report to be used as proof that the freeholder is indeed missing. It is wise to seek advice from a conveyancer in relation to investigating the landlord’s disappearance and the application to the County Court overseeing Wennington.

I am hoping to complete next month on a garden flat in Wennington. Conveyancing solicitors have said that they are sending me a report next week. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?

The report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in Wennington should include some of the following:

• Details of the parties to the lease, for example these could be the leaseholder (you), head lessor, landlord
• Setting out your legal entitlements in relation to common areas in the block.For example, does the lease provide for a right of way over an accessway or hallways?
• Are you allowed to have a pet in the flat?
• You should be told what constitutes a Nuisance in the lease
• Changes to the flat (alterations and additions)
• The landlord’s rights to access the flat you be made aware that your landlord has rights of access and I know how much notice s/he must provide.
• The landlord’s obligations to repair and maintain the building. It is important that you know who is responsible for the repair and maintenance of every part of the building

Estate agents have just been given the go-ahead to market my basement apartment in Wennington.Conveyancing has not commenced but I have just received a quarterly service charge demand – Do I pay up?

It best that you discharge the service charge 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. Having a clear account will assist your cause and will leave you no worse off financially.

I own a leasehold house in Wennington. Conveyancing and Platform Home Loans Ltd mortgage went though with no issue. A letter has just been received from someone saying they have taken over the freehold. Attached was a demand for arrears of ground rent dating back to 1991. The conveyancing practitioner in Wennington who acted for me is not around.Any advice?

First make enquiries of the Land Registry to be sure that this person is in fact the new freeholder. It is not necessary to instruct a Wennington conveyancing practitioner to do this as you can do this on the Land Registry website for £3. Rest assured 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 work for a busy estate agent office in Wennington where we see a few leasehold sales derailed due to short leases. I have received conflicting advice from local Wennington conveyancing solicitors. Can you confirm whether the vendor of a flat can commence the lease extension formalities for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

Provided that 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. This means that the proposed purchaser can avoid having to sit tight for 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done prior to, or at the same time as completion of the disposal of the property.

Alternatively, it may be possible to agree the lease extension with the freeholder 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.

I am the proprietor of a first flat in Wennington. Given that I can not reach agreement with the freeholder, can the Leasehold valuation Tribunal make a decision on the premium payable for the purchase of the freehold?

Absolutely. We can put you in touch with a Wennington conveyancing firm who can help.

An example of a Lease Extension matter before the tribunal for a Wennington premises is Various @ Colombus Square in January 2012. the Tribunal calculated the premiums to be paid for new leases for each of the flats in Mariners Walk to be £3822 and the premium to be paid for the new lease of 2 Knights Court to be £4439. This case related to 13 flats. The the number of years remaining on the existing lease(s) was 76 years.

Leasehold Conveyancing in Wennington - Examples of Questions you should ask Prior to Purchasing

You should be aware that where the lease has fewer than 80 years it will impact the marketability of the property. It is worth checking with your bank that they are happy with the length of the lease. Leases with less than 80 years remaining means that you will most likely require a lease extension sooner rather than later and you need to have some idea of how much this will be. Remember, in most cases you will need to own the property for a couple of years before you are entitled to exercise a lease extension. You will want to find out as much as possible concerning the managing agents as they can either make life much easier or uncomfortable. Being a leasehold owner you are often in the clutches of the managing agents from a financial perspective and when it comes to day to day issues like the cleanliness of the communal areas. Enquire of other tenants what they think of their service. Finally, find out the dates that the maintenance charges are due to the relevant party and specifically what it includes.