Having had my offer accepted I require leasehold conveyancing in Winchmore Hill. Before I get started I require certainty as to the remaining lease term.

If the lease is recorded at the land registry - and 99.9% are in Winchmore Hill - 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.

Jane (my partner) and I may need to sub-let our Winchmore Hill basement flat for a while due to a career opportunity. We used a Winchmore Hill conveyancing firm in 2003 but they have closed and we did not think at the time seek any advice as to whether the lease allows us to sublet. How do we find out?

Notwithstanding that your last Winchmore Hill conveyancing solicitor is no longer around you can review your lease to see if it allows you to sublet the property. The rule is that if the lease is silent, subletting is allowed. Quite often there is a prerequisite that you need to seek consent from your landlord or some other party in advance of subletting. This means that you cannot sublet in the absence of prior consent. Such consent is not allowed to be unreasonably refused ore delayed. If your lease prohibits you from letting out the property you will need to ask your landlord for their consent.

I've recently bought a leasehold house in Winchmore Hill. Do I have any liability for service charges relating to a period prior to 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. Strange as it may seem, your landlord may still be able to take action to forfeit the lease. It is an essential part 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).

Our conveyancer has advised that he intends to complete and exchange simultaneously on the sale of our £425000 apartment in Winchmore Hill next week. The landlords agents has quoted £348 for Certificate of Compliance, insurance certificate and 3 years statements of service charge. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge such fees for a leasehold conveyance in Winchmore Hill?

Winchmore Hill conveyancing on leasehold apartments typically involves administration charges raised by landlords agents :

• Answering conveyancing due diligence enquiries
• Where consent is required before sale in Winchmore Hill
• Supplying insurance information
• 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 Winchmore Hill leasehold premises is £350. For Winchmore Hill 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.

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

Absolutely. We are happy to put you in touch with a Winchmore Hill conveyancing firm who can help.

An example of a Lease Extension decision for a Winchmore Hill premises is First Floor Flat 109 Lyndhurst Road in May 2010. Following a vesting order by Edmonton County Court on 29th October 2009 the Tribunal decided on a figure of £5,012 for a lease extension. This case was in relation to 1 flat. The unexpired lease term was 81.79 years.

When it comes to leasehold conveyancing in Winchmore Hill what are the most common lease problems?

There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Winchmore Hill. All leases are unique and drafting errors can result in certain provisions are not included. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:

• Repairing obligations to or maintain parts of the property
• A duty to insure the building
• Clauses dealing with recovering service charges for expenditure on the building or common parts.
• Maintenance charge proportions which don’t add up to the correct percentage

A defective lease can cause problems when trying to sell a property primarily because it impacts on the ability to obtain a mortgage on the property. Nationwide Building Society, Virgin Money, and Godiva Mortgages Ltd all have express conveyancing instructions when it comes to what is expected in a lease. If a mortgage lender believes that the lease is defective they may refuse to provide security, obliging the buyer to pull out.