I only have Sixty One years left on my lease in West Kensington. I need to get lease extension but my landlord is absent. 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 mean that your lease can be lengthened by the magistrate. You will be obliged to prove that you have made all reasonable attempts to find the landlord. For most situations an enquiry agent should be useful to try and locate and to produce a report to be used as evidence that the landlord can not be located. It is advisable to get professional help from a property lawyer both on proving the landlord’s disappearance and the vesting order request to the County Court covering West Kensington.

I’m about to sell my ground floor apartment in West Kensington.Conveyancing is yet to be initiated but I have just had a yearly maintenance charge demand – Do I pay up?

The sensible thing to do is 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 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. Having a clear account will assist your cause and will leave you no worse off financially.

I am a negotiator for a reputable estate agency in West Kensington where we see a few flat sales jeopardised due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given contradictory information from local West Kensington conveyancing solicitors. Please can you confirm whether the owner of a flat can instigate 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. 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 has to be done prior to, 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.

What are your top tips when it comes to choosing a West Kensington conveyancing firm to deal with our lease extension?

If you are instructing a solicitor for your lease extension (regardless if they are a West Kensington conveyancing firm) it is essential that they be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of conveyancing. We suggested that you speak with two or three firms including non West Kensington conveyancing practices before you instructing a firm. Where the conveyancing practice is ALEP accredited then that’s a bonus. Some following of questions might be helpful:

• If they are not ALEP accredited then what is the reason?
• What are the charges for lease extension conveyancing?

Do you have any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in West Kensington from the perspective of speeding up the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in West Kensington can be avoided where you get in touch lawyers as soon as you market your property and request that they start to put together the leasehold documentation needed by the buyers representatives.
• In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s approval? Have you, for example laid down wooden flooring? West Kensington leases often stipulate that internal structural changes or laying down wooden flooring require a licence from the Landlord consenting to such changes. Where you fail to have the approvals in place you should not contact the landlord without checking with your conveyancer first.
• A minority of West Kensington leases require Landlord’s consent to the sale and approval of the buyers. If this applies to your lease, it would be prudent to notify your estate agents to make sure that the purchasers put in hand bank and professional references. The bank reference should make it clear that the buyer is financially capable of paying 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 actual amount of the service charge so that they can pass this information on to the purchasers or their solicitors.
• If you have had any disputes with your landlord or managing agents it is very important that these are settled prior to the flat being marketed. The purchasers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a flat where a dispute is unresolved. You will have to accept that you will have to pay any arrears of service charge or settle the dispute prior to the buyers completing the purchase. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled prior to the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You are still duty bound to disclose particulars of the dispute to the purchasers, but it is better to present the dispute as over as opposed to ongoing.
• If you have the benefit of shareholding in the freehold, you should make sure that you are holding the original share certificate. Organising a replacement share certificate can be a time consuming formality and slows down many a West Kensington home move. If a reissued share certificate is needed, do contact the company director and secretary or managing agents (if applicable) for this sooner rather than later.

I am the proprietor of a a ground floor purpose built flat in West Kensington. Given that I can not reach agreement with the landlord, can the Leasehold valuation Tribunal make a decision on the amount payable for the purchase of the freehold?

if there is a missing landlord or where there is disagreement about the premium for a lease extension, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 it is possible to make an application to the LVT to assess the premium.

An example of a Lease Extension case for a West Kensington flat 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 term as at the valuation date was 37.79 years.

I acquired a garden flat in West Kensington, conveyancing formalities finalised half a dozen years ago. Can you let me have an estimate of the premium that my landlord can legally expect in return for granting a renewal of my lease? Equivalent properties in West Kensington with an extended lease are worth £230,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £45 invoiced annually. The lease runs out on 21st October 2100

You have 74 years unexpired the likely cost is going to be between £13,300 and £15,400 plus professional fees.

The suggested premium range above a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we cannot give you the actual costs in the absence of comprehensive investigations. You should not use the figures in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There may be additional concerns that need to be taken into account and you obviously should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Neither should you take any other action placing reliance on this information before getting professional advice.