Having had my offer accepted I require leasehold conveyancing in West Kensington. Before I get started I require certainty as to the number of years remaining on the lease.

Assuming the lease is registered - and most are in West Kensington - then the leasehold title will always include the basic details of the lease, namely the date; the term; and the original parties. From a conveyancing perspective such details then enable any prospective buyer and lender to confirm that any lease they are looking at is the one relevant to that title.For any other purpose, such as confirming how long the term was granted for and calculating what is left, then the register should be sufficient on it's own.

Estate agents have just been given the go-ahead to market my 2 bed flat in West Kensington.Conveyancing has not commenced but I have just had a half-yearly maintenance charge demand – what should I do?

The sensible thing to do is clear 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 managing agents 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. This will smooth the conveyancing process.

I am employed by a busy estate agent office in West Kensington where we see a few flat sales derailed due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given contradictory information from local West Kensington conveyancing solicitors. Can you confirm whether the vendor of a flat can instigate the lease extension process for the buyer?

Provided that the seller has owned the lease for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. The benefit of this is that the buyer need not have to wait 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed before, or simultaneously with completion of the disposal of the property.

Alternatively, it may be possible 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 buyer.

Can you provide any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in West Kensington with the purpose of expediting the sale process?

• Much of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in West Kensington can be bypassed if you appoint lawyers as soon as you market your property and ask them to collate the leasehold information needed by the buyers representatives.
• The majority landlords or managing agents in West Kensington levy fees for supplying management packs for a leasehold homes. You or your lawyers should enquire as to the fee that they propose to charge. The management information can be applied for on or before finding a buyer, thus reducing delays. The typical amount of time it takes to receive management information is three weeks. It is the most common cause of delay in leasehold conveyancing in West Kensington.
• If you have had any disputes with your landlord or managing agents it is essential that these are resolved before the property is put on the market. The buyers and their solicitors will be concerned about purchasing a property where a dispute is ongoing. You will have to accept that you will have to pay any arrears of service charge or resolve the dispute prior to the buyers completing the purchase. 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 details of the dispute to the buyers, but it is better to reveal the dispute as historic rather than unsettled.
• If you have the benefit of shareholding in the Management Company, you should make sure that you hold the original share document. Organising a new share certificate can be a lengthy formality and frustrates many a West Kensington conveyancing deal. If a reissued share is necessary, do contact the company officers or managing agents (where applicable) for this at the earliest opportunity.
• You believe that you know the number of years left on your lease but you should verify this by asking your conveyancers. A buyer’s lawyer will not be happy to advise their client to to exchange contracts if the lease term is less than 75 years. In the circumstances it is essential at an early stage that you consider whether the lease term for your property needs extending. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your home on the market for sale.

We expect to complete our sale of a £ 200000 flat in West Kensington in seven days. The landlords agents has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Landlord’s certificate, insurance certificate and 3 years service charge statements. Is the landlord entitled to charge such fees for a leasehold conveyance in West Kensington?

West Kensington conveyancing on leasehold flats ordinarily results in fees being raised by landlords agents :

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

I am the registered owner of a a ground floor purpose built flat in West Kensington. In the absence of agreement between myself and the landlord, can the Leasehold valuation Tribunal determine the premium payable for a lease extension?

in cases where there is a missing freeholder or if there is dispute about the premium for a lease extension, under the relevant legislation you can apply to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal to judgment on the price payable.

An example of a Lease Extension decision for a West Kensington premises is 93 Oakwood Court in June 2010. the LVT determined that the premium to be paid for the new lease was £492,083, This case was in relation to 1 flat. The the unexpired residue of the current lease was 37.79 years.

Leasehold Conveyancing in West Kensington - Sample of Questions you should ask Prior to Purchasing

You should be aware that where the lease has no more than eighty years it will have adverse implications on the value of the flat. It is worth checking with your bank that they are willing to to proceed given the lease term. A short lease means that you will probably have to extend the lease sooner rather than later and it is worth discovering what this would cost. Remember, in most cases you will need to own the premises for two years in order to be legally able to extend the lease.