I am intending to rent out my leasehold apartment in West Hampstead. Conveyancing solicitor who did the purchase is retired - so can't ask him. Is permission from the freeholder required?

Notwithstanding that your last West Hampstead conveyancing solicitor is no longer around you can check your lease to see if you are permitted to let out the premises. The accepted inference is that if the lease is non-specific, subletting is allowed. Quite often there is a prerequisite that you are obliged to obtain consent from your landlord or other appropriate person in advance of subletting. This means that you cannot sublet in the absence of first obtaining permission. The consent is not allowed to be unreasonably turned down. If the lease does not allow you to sublet you will need to ask your landlord for their consent.

I have just started marketing my 2 bed flat in West Hampstead.Conveyancing lawyers have not yet been instructed but I have just had a quarterly maintenance charge demand – Do I pay up?

Your conveyancing lawyer is likely to suggest that you should 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.

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

• Much of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in West Hampstead can be reduced where you get in touch lawyers as soon as your agents start marketing the property and request that they start to put together the leasehold information which will be required by the buyers lawyers.
• Many freeholders or Management Companies in West Hampstead charge for supplying management packs for a leasehold homes. You or your lawyers should discover the actual amount of the charges. The management pack can be applied for as soon as you have a buyer, thus reducing delays. The average time it takes to receive management information is three weeks. It is the most usual reason for frustration in leasehold conveyancing in West Hampstead.
• If you have carried out any alterations to the residence would they have required Landlord’s permission? Have you, for example installed wooden flooring? West Hampstead leases often stipulate that internal structural changes or laying down wooden flooring necessitate a licence from the Landlord approving such alterations. Where you dont have the approvals to hand you should not communicate with the landlord without checking with your conveyancer before hand.
• Some West Hampstead leases require Landlord’s consent to the sale and approval of the buyers. If this applies to your lease, it would be prudent to place the estate agents on notice to make sure that the purchasers put in hand financial (bank) and professional references. The bank reference should make it clear that the buyer is able to meet the yearly 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 lawyers.
• If there is a history of any disputes with your freeholder or managing agents it is very important that these are resolved prior to the flat being marketed. The purchasers and their solicitors will be nervous about purchasing a property where a dispute is unresolved. You may need to swallow your pride and pay any arrears of service charge or resolve the dispute prior to completion of the sale. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled ahead of the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You will still have to reveal particulars of the dispute to the buyers, but it is clearly preferable to present the dispute as historic as opposed to unresolved.

Completion in due on the disposal of our £ 375000 maisonette in West Hampstead next week. The managing agents has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Certificate of Compliance, insurance certificate and 3 years service charge statements. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge exorbitant fees for a flat conveyance in West Hampstead?

West Hampstead conveyancing on leasehold apartments normally results in administration charges raised by freeholders :

• Answering pre-contract questions
• Where consent is required before sale in West Hampstead
• 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 West Hampstead leasehold property is £350. For West Hampstead 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 the information.

After months of negotiations we cannot agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in West Hampstead. Can we issue an application to the Residential Property Tribunal Service?

in cases where there is a missing freeholder or where there is dispute about what the lease extension should cost, under the relevant statutes it is possible to make an application to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal to assess the sum to be paid.

An example of a Lease Extension matter before the tribunal for a West Hampstead premises is Flat A 372 Cricklewood Lane in January 2013. The Tribunal decided that the premium for the extended lease should be £5,750.00 and that the terms of the new lease should be those set out in annex to the decsion This case was in relation to 1 flat.

In relation to leasehold conveyancing in West Hampstead what are the most frequent lease problems?

Leasehold conveyancing in West Hampstead is not unique. Most leases is drafted differently and legal mistakes in the legal wording can sometimes mean that certain clauses are wrong. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:

• Repairing obligations to or maintain parts of the premises
• Insurance obligations
• A provision for the recovery of money spent for the benefit of another party.
• Service charge per centages that don't add up correctly leaving a shortfall

You could have a problem when selling your property if you have a defective lease primarily because it impacts on the ability to obtain a mortgage on the property. Santander, Leeds Building Society, and Bank of Ireland all have very detailed conveyancing instructions when it comes to what is expected in a lease. Where a lender has been advised by their lawyers that the lease is problematic they may refuse to provide security, forcing the purchaser to pull out.

I invested in buying a 2 bed flat in West Hampstead, conveyancing was carried out 3 years ago. Can you shed any light on how much the price could be for a 90 year extension to my lease? Comparable flats in West Hampstead with an extended lease are worth £262,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £45 charged once a year. The lease ends on 21st October 2099

With only 73 years unexpired we estimate the premium for your lease extension to span between £9,500 and £11,000 plus plus your own and the landlord's "reasonable" professional fees.

The figure above a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we are not able to advice on the actual costs in the absence of comprehensive due diligence. You should not use the figures in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There are no doubt additional concerns that need to be considered and clearly you should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. You should not move forward placing reliance on this information without first getting professional advice.