Having checked my lease I have discovered that there are only Fifty years left on my flat in Mousehole. I need to extend my lease but my landlord is can not be found. 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 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 lengthened by the magistrate. However, you will be required to prove that you have used your best endeavours to locate the lessor. For most situations an enquiry agent should be useful to carry out a search and prepare an expert document to be accepted by the court as proof that the freeholder is indeed missing. It is wise to seek advice from a conveyancer in relation to investigating the landlord’s absence and the vesting order request to the County Court overseeing Mousehole.

I am attracted to a two flats in Mousehole which have approximately fifty years left on the lease term. Will this present a problem?

There is no doubt about it. A leasehold flat in Mousehole is a wasting asset as a result of the shortening lease. The closer the lease gets to zero years unexpired, the more it adversely affects the salability of the property. For most buyers and banks, leases with less than 75 years become less and less marketable. On a more positive note, leaseholders can extend their leases by serving a Section 42 Notice. One stipulation is that they must have owned the premises for two years (unlike a Section 13 notice for purchasing the freehold, when leaseholders can participate from day one of ownership). When successful, they will have the right to an extension of 90 years to the current term and ground rent is effectively reduced to zero. Before moving forward with a purchase of property with a short lease term remaining you should talk to a solicitor specialising in lease extensions and leasehold enfranchisement. We are are happy to put you in touch with Mousehole conveyancing experts who will explain the options available to you during an initial telephone conversation free of charge. A more straightforward and quicker method of extending would be to contact your landlord directly and sound him out on the prospect of extending the lease They may agree to a smaller lump sum and an increase in the ground rent, but to shorter extension terms in return. You need to ensure that the agreed terms represent good long-term value compared with the standard benefits of the Section 42 Notice and that onerous clauses are not inserted into any redrafting of the lease.

I've recently bought a leasehold flat in Mousehole. Do I have any liability for service charges relating to a period prior to my ownership?

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. However, your landlord may still be able to take action to forfeit the lease. A critical element of leasehold conveyancing for your conveyancer to be sure 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).

I work for a busy estate agency in Mousehole where we have witnessed a number of leasehold sales jeopardised as a result of leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given inconsistent advice from local Mousehole conveyancing firms. Can you clarify whether the owner of a flat can commence the lease extension formalities for the buyer?

Provided that the seller has been the owner for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. This means that the buyer need not have to sit tight for 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed before, or simultaneously with completion of the sale.

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.

If all goes to plan we aim to complete the disposal of our £ 325000 maisonette in Mousehole in just under a week. The landlords agents has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Certificate of Compliance, insurance certificate and 3 years statements of service charge. Is the landlord entitled to charge exorbitant fees for a leasehold conveyance in Mousehole?

Mousehole conveyancing on leasehold maisonettes normally results in administration charges invoiced by landlords agents :

• Addressing pre-exchange enquiries
• Where consent is required before sale in Mousehole
• 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 Mousehole leasehold premises is £350. For Mousehole 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 invested in buying a garden flat in Mousehole, conveyancing formalities finalised 8 years ago. Can you shed any light on how much the price could be for a 90 year extension to my lease? Similar flats in Mousehole with an extended lease are worth £215,000. The ground rent is £65 levied per year. The lease expires on 21st October 2099

With only 73 years unexpired the likely cost is going to range between £9,500 and £11,000 as well as plus your own and the landlord's "reasonable" professional fees.

The figure above a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we cannot give you a more accurate figure without more detailed due diligence. Do not use the figures in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There are no doubt other issues that need to be taken into account and clearly you want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Please do not move forward based on this information before getting professional advice.