Frank (my husband) and I may need to sub-let our North East London basement flat temporarily due to a career opportunity. We used a North East London conveyancing practice in 2001 but they have since shut and we did not have the foresight to seek any advice as to whether the lease permits subletting. How do we find out?

Even though your previous North East London conveyancing solicitor is not around you can check your lease to check if you are permitted to let out the premises. The rule is that if the lease is silent, subletting is allowed. Quite often there is a prerequisite that you need to obtain permission via your landlord or other appropriate person before subletting. This means you not allowed to sublet in the absence of first obtaining consent. Such consent must not not be unreasonably refused ore delayed. If the lease prohibits you from letting out the property you should ask your landlord if they are willing to waive this restriction.

I am hoping to sign contracts shortly on a basement flat in North East London. Conveyancing solicitors have said that they will have a report out to me on Monday. What should I be looking out for?

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

• Details of the parties to the lease, for example these could be the leaseholder (you), head lessor, freeholder

I am tempted by the attractive purchase price for a couple of flats in North East London which have approximately forty five years remaining on the leases. Should I regard a short lease as a deal breaker?

There are plenty of short leases in North East London. The lease is a right to use the property for a period of time. As the lease gets shorter the value of the lease reduces and results in it becoming more costly to extend the lease. For this reason it is generally wise to increase the term of the lease. It is often difficult to sell a property with a short lease because mortgage companies may be unwilling to lend money on such properties. Lease extension can be a protracted process. We advise that you get professional assistance from a solicitor and surveyor with experience in this arena

Last month I purchased a leasehold property in North East London. Do I have any liability for service charges for periods before 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 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).

I work for a reputable estate agency in North East London where we have witnessed a few leasehold sales derailed due to short leases. I have been given conflicting advice from local North East London conveyancing solicitors. Please can you clarify whether the owner of a flat can commence the lease extension formalities for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

Provided that the seller has owned the lease 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 can avoid having to sit tight for 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done before, or at the same time as completion of the sale.

Alternatively, it may be possible to agree the lease extension with the freeholder 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.

I inherited a 1 bedroom flat in North East London, conveyancing was carried out half a dozen years ago. Can you let me have an estimate of the premium that my landlord can legally expect in return for granting a renewal of my lease? Similar properties in North East London with an extended lease are worth £266,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £45 yearly. The lease terminates on 21st October 2092

With just 67 years remaining on your lease the likely cost is going to be between £12,400 and £14,200 as well as professional fees.

The figure that we have given is a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we cannot give you a more accurate figure in the absence of detailed investigations. You should not use this information in tribunal or court proceedings. There are no doubt additional issues that need to be taken into account and clearly you should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Please do not take any other action based on this information without first getting professional advice.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in North East London