I only have 72 years remaining on my lease in West Green. I now want to extend my lease but my freeholder is absent. What are my options?

If you meet the appropriate requirements, 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 mean that your lease can be lengthened by the Court. However, you will be required to prove that you or your lawyers have done all that could be expected to track down the landlord. In some cases a specialist may be useful to carry out a search and to produce a report which can be used as proof that the landlord can not be located. It is advisable to get professional help from a property lawyer in relation to investigating the landlord’s disappearance and the application to the County Court overseeing West Green.

I am looking at a couple of flats in West Green which have approximately forty five years left on the leases. Will this present a problem?

There are plenty of short leases in West Green. The lease is a legal document that entitles you to use the property for a prescribed time frame. As the lease gets shorter the value of the lease reduces and it becomes more expensive to extend the lease. For this reason it is often a good idea to increase the term of the lease. It is often difficult to sell a property with a short lease as mortgage lenders may be unwilling to lend money on properties of this type. Lease extension can be a difficult process. We recommend you seek professional help from a solicitor and surveyor with experience in this field

I've recently bought a leasehold property in West Green. Do I have any liability for service charges for periods before completion of my purchase?

Where the service charge has already been demanded from the previous owner and they have not paid you would not usually be personally liable for the arrears. However, your landlord may still be able to take action to forfeit the lease. A critical element of leasehold conveyancing for your conveyancer to ensure to have an up to date clear service charge receipt before completion of your purchase. If you have a mortgage this is likely to be a requirement of your lender.

If you purchase part way through an accounting year you may be liable for charges not yet demanded even if they relate to a period prior to your purchase. In such circumstances your conveyancer would normally arrange for the seller to set aside some money to cover their part of the period (usually called a service charge retention).

Can you provide any advice for leasehold conveyancing in West Green from the perspective of expediting the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in West Green can be reduced if you instruct lawyers as soon as you market your property and request that they start to collate the leasehold information which will be required by the purchasers’ solicitors.
• Many freeholders or managing agents in West Green levy fees for supplying management packs for a leasehold property. You or your lawyers should find out the fee that they propose to charge. The management information can be applied for on or before finding a buyer, thus accelerating the process. The typical amount of time it takes to obtain the necessary information is three weeks. It is the most usual reason for frustration in leasehold conveyancing in West Green.

Our conveyancer has advised that he intends to complete and exchange simultaneously on the disposal of our £500000 apartment in West Green next week. The managing agents has quoted £348 for Landlord’s certificate, insurance certificate and previous years service charge statements. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge exorbitant fees for a leasehold conveyance in West Green?

West Green conveyancing on leasehold flats normally necessitates the purchaser’s solicitor submitting enquiries for the landlord to address. Although the landlord is not legally bound to answer such questions most will be content to assist. They are at liberty invoice a reasonable administration fee for responding to enquiries or supplying documentation. There is no upper cap for such fees. The average costs for the paperwork that you are referring to is £350, in some cases it is above £800. The management information fee required by the landlord must be accompanied by a summary of entitlements and obligations in relation to administration fees, without which the charge is technically not due. In reality you have no choice but to pay whatever is requested of you if you want to complete the sale of your home.

Having spent years of dialogue we cannot agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in West Green. Does the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal have jurisdiction to calculate the appropriate figures?

if there is a missing freeholder or if there is disagreement about the premium for a lease extension, under the relevant legislation it is possible to make an application to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal to make a decision on the price.

An example of a Freehold Enfranchisement decision for a West Green premises is 61 Clinton Road in April 2012. Following a vesting order Clerkenwell and Shoreditch County Court under section 26 of the Leasehold Reform,Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 on 5th July 2011 the Tribunal decided that the price that the Applicant for the freehold interest should pay is £17,000 This case was in relation to 2 flats. The the unexpired term as at the valuation date was 73.88 years.