I have recently realised that I have Sixty One years left on my lease in Lydney. I need to extend my lease but my landlord is can not be found. What are my options?

On the basis that you qualify, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can submit an application to the County Court for for permission to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will mean that your lease can be extended by the Court. However, you will be required to prove that you or your lawyers have made all reasonable attempts to find the landlord. In some cases an enquiry agent should be useful to try and locate and prepare an expert document to be used as evidence that the freeholder can not be located. It is wise to seek advice from a property lawyer both on proving the landlord’s absence and the application to the County Court overseeing Lydney.

You should [be sent a copy of the lease|receive a copy of the lease]

Planning to complete next month on a garden flat in Lydney. Conveyancing lawyers inform me that they are sending me a report next week. What should I be looking out for?

Your report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in Lydney should include some of the following:

• Defining your legal entitlements in relation to common areas in the block.For instance, does the lease grant a right of way over an accessway or hallways?
• Does the lease prohibit wood flooring?
• Whether the lease restricts you from letting out the flat, or working from home
• An explanation as to the provision in the lease to pay service charges - with regard to both the building, and the more general rights a leaseholder has
• You should have a good understanding of the insurance provisions
• Changes to the flat (alterations and additions)
• The landlord’s obligations to repair and maintain the building. It is important that you know who is responsible for the repair and maintenance of every part of the building

For details of the information to be contained in your report on your leasehold property in Lydney please enquire of your conveyancer in advance of your conveyancing in Lydney

My wife and I purchased a leasehold flat in Lydney. Conveyancing and Lloyds TSB Bank mortgage organised. A letter has just been received from someone claiming to own the reversionary interest in the property. It included a demand for arrears of ground rent dating back to 1996. The conveyancing practitioner in Lydney who acted for me is not around.What should I do?

The first thing you should do is make enquiries of HMLR to be sure that the individual purporting to own the freehold is in fact the registered owner of the freehold reversion. You do not need to instruct a Lydney conveyancing firm to do this as it can be done on-line for £3. Rest assured that in any event, even if this is the rightful freeholder, under the Limitation Act 1980 the limitation period for recovery of ground rent is six years.

Do you have any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Lydney from the perspective of saving time on the sale process?

• Much of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Lydney can be bypassed where you instruct lawyers as soon as your agents start marketing the property and ask them to put together the leasehold documentation needed by the purchasers’ conveyancers.
• The majority landlords or Management Companies in Lydney levy fees for supplying management packs for a leasehold property. You or your lawyers should enquire as to the actual amount of the charges. The management information sought as soon as you have a buyer, thus accelerating the process. The average time it takes to receive management information is three weeks. It is the most frequent reason for frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Lydney.
• A minority of Lydney leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this is the case, it would be prudent to notify your estate agents 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 financially capable of paying the annual 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 conflict with your freeholder or managing agents it is essential that these are resolved prior to the flat being marketed. The buyers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a flat where there is an ongoing dispute. You may need to swallow your pride and 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 present the dispute as historic as opposed to unsettled.
• If you hold a share in a the freehold, you should ensure that you hold the original share certificate. Obtaining a replacement share certificate can be a time consuming formality and delays many a Lydney home move. Where a reissued share is needed, do contact the company director and secretary or managing agents (where applicable) for this at the earliest opportunity.

All being well we will complete the sale of our £ 200000 flat in Lydney next Wednesday . The landlords agents has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Certificate of Compliance, insurance certificate and previous years statements of service charge. Is the landlord entitled to charge an administration fee for a flat conveyance in Lydney?

For most leasehold sales in Lydney conveyancing will involve, queries regarding the management of a building inevitably needing to be answered directly by the freeholder or its agent, this includes :

• Addressing pre-exchange enquiries
• Where consent is required before sale in Lydney
• 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 Lydney leasehold premises is £350. For Lydney 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 answers.

Lydney Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - A selection of Queries Prior to buying

The prefered form of lease arrangement is a share of the freehold. In this scenario the tenants have control and notwithstanding that a managing agent is frequently employed if it is bigger than a house conversion, the managing agent is directed by the tenants.