My wife and I may need to rent out our Machen garden flat temporarily due to a new job. We instructed a Machen conveyancing practice in 2003 but they have closed and we did not have the foresight to get any guidance as to whether the lease permits subletting. How do we find out?

Notwithstanding that your last Machen conveyancing solicitor is not available you can review your lease to check if you are permitted to let out the apartment. The rule is that if the lease is silent, subletting is allowed. There may be a precondition that you are obliged to obtain consent via your landlord or some other party before subletting. The net result is you not allowed to sublet without first obtaining permission. The consent should not be unreasonably withheld. If your lease prohibits you from letting out the property you should ask your landlord for their consent.

I only have Fifty years left on my lease in Machen. I now want to extend my lease but my landlord is missing. What options are available to me?

On the basis that you meet the appropriate requirements, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the County Court for an order to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will mean that your lease can be granted an extra 90 years by the magistrate. However, you will be required to demonstrate that you have made all reasonable attempts to track down the landlord. On the whole a specialist should be useful to carry out a search and prepare a report which can be used as proof that the landlord can not be located. It is wise to seek advice from a property lawyer in relation to proving the landlord’s absence and the application to the County Court covering Machen.

Can you provide any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Machen from the perspective of saving time on the sale process?

• Much of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Machen can be bypassed where you appoint lawyers as soon as you market your property and request that they start to put together the leasehold information needed by the buyers lawyers.
• In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s consent? Have you, for example laid down wooden flooring? Machen leases often stipulate that internal structural alterations or installing wooden flooring necessitate a licence issued by the Landlord approving such works. Should you fail to have the consents in place do not contact the landlord without checking with your lawyer in the first instance.
• A minority of Machen leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this is the case, you should notify your estate agents to make sure that the purchasers obtain bank and professional references. Any 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 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 freeholder or managing agents it is very important that these are resolved before the property is put on the market. The purchasers and their solicitors will be nervous about purchasing 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 are still duty bound to disclose particulars of the dispute to the buyers, but it is better to reveal the dispute as historic as opposed to ongoing.
• You may think that you are aware of the number of years remaining on your lease but it would be wise to verify this by asking your lawyers. A purchaser's lawyer will not be happy to advise their client to proceed with the purchase of a leasehold property the lease term is under 75 years. It is therefore important 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 premises on the market for sale.

Our conveyancer has advised that he intends to complete and exchange simultaneously on the sale of our £ 200000 apartment in Machen next week. The management company has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Certificate of Compliance, building insurance schedule and 3 years statements of service charge. Is the landlord entitled to charge an administration fee for a flat conveyance in Machen?

Machen conveyancing on leasehold apartments typically results in fees being raised by freeholders :

• Answering conveyancing due diligence questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Machen
• 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 Machen leasehold premises is £350. For Machen 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 answers.

In relation to leasehold conveyancing in Machen what are the most frequent lease problems?

There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Machen. All leases is drafted differently and drafting errors can sometimes mean that certain clauses are erroneous. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:

• Repairing obligations to or maintain elements of the building
• A duty to insure the building
• Clauses dealing with recovering service charges for expenditure on the building or common parts.
• Service charge per centages that don't add up correctly leaving a shortfall

You could have difficulties when selling your property if you have a defective lease primarily because it impacts on the ability to obtain a mortgage on the property. Birmingham Midshires, Chelsea Building Society, and TSB all have very detailed requirements when it comes to what is expected in a lease. If a mortgage lender believes that the lease is problematic they may refuse to grant the mortgage, forcing the buyer to pull out.

I purchased a basement flat in Machen, conveyancing formalities finalised half a dozen years ago. Can you please calculate a probable premium for a statutory lease extension? Corresponding properties in Machen with an extended lease are worth £190,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £55 invoiced annually. The lease expires on 21st October 2099

With just 73 years unexpired the likely cost is going to be between £10,500 and £12,000 as well as plus your own and the landlord's "reasonable" professional fees.

The suggested premium range that we have given is a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we are not able to supply a more accurate figure without more detailed due diligence. Do not use the figures in tribunal or court proceedings. There are no doubt other issues that need to be considered and you obviously want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. You should not move forward placing reliance on this information without first getting professional advice.