Having checked my lease I have discovered that there are only 72 years left on my lease in Ongar. I need to extend my lease but my landlord is missing. What should I do?

If 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 an order to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will enable the lease to be extended by the magistrate. However, you will be required to demonstrate that you have made all reasonable attempts to find the lessor. For most situations a specialist may be useful to carry out a search and to produce a report which can be used as evidence that the landlord is indeed missing. It is wise to seek advice from a conveyancer in relation to proving the landlord’s disappearance and the application to the County Court overseeing Ongar.

I am hoping to put an offer on a small detached house that seems to meet my requirements, at a great price which is making it more attractive. I have subsequently discovered that the title is leasehold as opposed to freehold. I am assuming that there are particular concerns buying a house with a leasehold title in Ongar. Conveyancing solicitors have are about to be instructed. Will they explain the issues?

The majority of houses in Ongar are freehold rather than leasehold. This is one of the situations where having a local conveyancer who is familiar with the area can assist with the conveyancing process. It is clear that you are buying in Ongar in which case you should be looking for a Ongar conveyancing solicitor and check that they are used to dealing with leasehold houses. As a matter of priority you will need to check the number of years remaining. As a tenant you will not be entirely free to do whatever you want with the house. The lease will likely included provisions such as requiring the freeholder’spermission to carry out alterations. You may also be required to pay a maintenance charge towards the upkeep of the estate where the house is part of an estate. Your conveyancer should appraise you on the various issues.

I am a negotiator for a long established estate agent office in Ongar where we have witnessed a few flat sales put at risk as a result of short leases. I have received contradictory information from local Ongar conveyancing solicitors. Could you clarify whether the vendor 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. The benefit of this is that the proposed purchaser 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 has to be done prior to, or at the same time as completion of the sale.

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 purchaser.

We expect to complete the sale of our £ 275000 flat in Ongar in six days. The freeholder has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Certificate of Compliance, building insurance schedule and previous years service charge statements. Is the landlord entitled to charge an administration fee for a leasehold conveyance in Ongar?

Ongar conveyancing on leasehold flats more often than not necessitates the purchaser’s conveyancer submitting enquiries for the landlord to address. Although the landlord is under no legal obligation to respond to such questions most will be content to do so. They are entitled levy a reasonable administration fee for answering enquiries or supplying documentation. There is no set fee. The average costs for the information that you are referring to is £350, in some cases it is above £800. The management information fee required by the landlord must be sent together with a synopsis of rights and obligations in relation to administration fees, otherwise the charge is technically not due. Reality however dictates that you have no choice but to pay whatever is requested of you if you want to complete the sale of your home.

In relation to leasehold conveyancing in Ongar what are the most frequent lease defects?

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

• A provision to repair to or maintain parts of the building
• A duty to insure the building
• Clauses dealing with recovering service charges for expenditure on the building or common parts.
• Maintenance charge proportions which don’t add up to the correct percentage

A defective lease will likely cause issues when trying to sell a property as they can affect a potential buyer’s ability to obtain a mortgage. Nationwide Building Society, Leeds Building Society, and Aldermore all have very detailed conveyancing instructions when it comes to what is expected in a lease. Where a lender has been advised by their lawyers that the lease does not cover certain provisions they may refuse to grant the mortgage, obliging the purchaser to pull out.

Ongar Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - Sample of Questions you should consider before Purchasing

Most Ongar leasehold flats will incur a service bill for maintenance of the block invoiced on behalf of the freeholder. Should you acquire the flat you will have to pay this liability, usually quarterly throughout the year. This could differ from a few hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for large purpose-built buildings. There will also be a rentcharge to be met annual, this is usually not a significant amount, say approximately £50-£100 but you should to enquire as on occasion it can be prohibitively expensive. The prefered form of lease structure is if the freehold interest is in the ownership of the leaseholders. In this arrangement the leaseholders benefit from control and even though a managing agent is frequently employed if it is larger than a house conversion, the managing agent is directed by the tenants. Please tell me if there are any major works in the near future that will increase the service fees?