I only have Seventy years left on my lease in Woolwich. I now wish to get lease extension but my freeholder is can not be found. What are my options?

If you qualify, 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 Court. However, you will be required to demonstrate that you or your lawyers have used your best endeavours to track down the landlord. On the whole an enquiry agent should be useful to conduct investigations and prepare an expert document to be used as evidence that the landlord can not be located. It is advisable to get professional help from a solicitor both on investigating the landlord’s disappearance and the vesting order request to the County Court covering Woolwich.

I today plan to offer on a house that seems to be perfect, at a reasonable figure which is making it more attractive. I have just discovered that the title is leasehold as opposed to freehold. I would have thought that there are issues buying a house with a leasehold title in Woolwich. Conveyancing advisers have are soon to be instructed. Will my lawyers set out the risks of buying a leasehold house in Woolwich ?

The majority of houses in Woolwich are freehold rather than leasehold. This is one of the situations where having a local solicitor who is familiar with the area can help the conveyancing process. It is clear that you are purchasing in Woolwich in which case you should be shopping around for a Woolwich conveyancing practitioner and check that they are used to dealing with leasehold houses. As a matter of priority you will need to check the unexpired lease term. As a leaseholder you will not be at liberty to do whatever you want with the house. The lease will likely included provisions for example obtaining the landlord’sconsent to conduct changes to the property. It may be necessary to pay a maintenance charge towards the maintenance of the estate where the property is located on an estate. Your conveyancer will advise you fully on all the issues.

I am a negotiator for a busy estate agent office in Woolwich where we have experienced a few leasehold sales put at risk due to short leases. I have received contradictory information from local Woolwich conveyancing firms. Please can you confirm whether the owner of a flat can commence the lease extension formalities for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

As long as the seller has been the owner for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to kick-start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. This means that the proposed purchaser 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.

An alternative approach is 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 advice for leasehold conveyancing in Woolwich from the point of view of expediting the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Woolwich can be avoided where you appoint lawyers as soon as you market your property and ask them to put together the leasehold documentation needed by the buyers representatives.
• The majority landlords or managing agents in Woolwich levy fees for supplying management packs for a leasehold homes. You or your lawyers should discover 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 average time it takes to obtain the necessary information is three weeks. It is the most usual cause of frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Woolwich.

A minority of Woolwich leases require Landlord’s consent to the sale and approval of the buyers. If this is the case, you should place the estate agents on notice to make sure that the purchasers put in hand financial (bank) and professional references. Any 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 actual amount of the service charge so that they can pass this information on to the buyers or their solicitors.

If there is a history of conflict with your freeholder or managing agents it is essential that these are resolved before the property is marketed. The purchasers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a flat where there is an ongoing dispute. You may have to bite the bullet and discharge any arrears of service charge or settle the dispute prior to completion of the sale. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled prior to 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 over as opposed to ongoing.

You believe that you know the number of years remaining on your lease but it would be advisable double-check via your conveyancers. A purchaser's conveyancer will not be happy to advise their client to where the lease term is less than 75 years. It is therefore essential at an as soon as possible that you consider whether the lease term requires a lease extension. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your premises on the market for sale.

If all goes to plan we aim to complete the sale of our £150000 flat in Woolwich on Monday in a week. The freeholder has quoted £360 for Landlord’s certificate, building insurance schedule and previous years statements of service charge. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge exorbitant fees for a flat conveyance in Woolwich?

Woolwich conveyancing on leasehold flats normally results in administration charges levied by managing agents :

• Answering pre-exchange enquiries
• Where consent is required before sale in Woolwich
• Supplying insurance information
• 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 Woolwich leasehold property is £350. For Woolwich 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 obliged to provide the information.

I have had difficulty in negotiating a lease extension in Woolwich. Can the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal adjudicate on premiums?

Where there is a absentee freeholder or if there is disagreement about what the lease extension should cost, under the relevant statutes it is possible to make an application to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal to make a decision on the sum to be paid.

An example of a Lease Extension matter before the tribunal for a Woolwich premises is 46 Credon Road in January 2014. On 11 September 2013 Deputy District Judge Price sitting at the Bow County Court made a vesting order that the freeholder surrender his lease and be granted a new lease of the Premises on such terms as may be determined by the First Tier Tribunal (Property Chamber).The appropriate sum as concluded by the Tribunal was £7225 This case related to 1 flat. The the number of years remaining on the existing lease(s) was 69.77 years.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Woolwich