Frank (my husband) and I may need to let out our Parkstone 1st floor flat temporarily due to taking a sabbatical. We used a Parkstone conveyancing practice in 2001 but they have since shut and we did not have the foresight to get any guidance as to whether the lease permits subletting. How do we find out?

Even though your last Parkstone conveyancing lawyer is not available you can review your lease to see if it allows you to sublet the premises. The rule is that if the deeds are non-specific, subletting is allowed. There may be a precondition that you need to seek permission from your landlord or some other party in advance of subletting. This means you not allowed to sublet without prior permission. Such consent must not not be unreasonably turned down. If your lease does not allow you to sublet you will need to ask your landlord if they are willing to waive this restriction.

I've recently bought a leasehold property in Parkstone. 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 lessee and they have not paid you would not usually be personally liable for the arrears. Strange as it may seem, your landlord may still be able to take action to forfeit the lease. It is an essential part 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 am employed by a long established estate agent office in Parkstone where we see a number of leasehold sales derailed due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have received inconsistent advice from local Parkstone conveyancing solicitors. Please can you confirm whether the owner of a flat can instigate the lease extension process for the buyer?

As long as the seller has owned the lease for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to commence the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. The benefit of this is that the buyer need not have to wait 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 simultaneously with 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.

Can you offer any advice when it comes to choosing a Parkstone conveyancing practice to carry out our lease extension conveyancing?

When appointing a property lawyer for lease extension works (regardless if they are a Parkstone conveyancing firm) it is essential that they be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of conveyancing. We recommend that you talk with two or three firms including non Parkstone conveyancing practices prior to instructing a firm. Where the conveyancing practice is ALEP accredited then that’s a bonus. Some following of questions might be of use:

• If the firm is not ALEP accredited then what is the reason?
• How many lease extensions has the firm completed in Parkstone in the last year?

If all goes to plan we aim to complete the sale of our £ 325000 garden flat in Parkstone next Wednesday . The managing agents has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Landlord’s certificate, building insurance schedule and 3 years statements of service charge. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge such fees for a flat conveyance in Parkstone?

Parkstone conveyancing on leasehold maisonettes usually involves fees being raised by landlords agents :

• Answering conveyancing due diligence questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Parkstone
• 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 Parkstone leasehold property is £350. For Parkstone 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 supply the information.

I invested in buying a basement flat in Parkstone, conveyancing formalities finalised 2007. Can you work out an approximate cost of a lease extension? Corresponding flats in Parkstone with a long lease are worth £165,000. The ground rent is £55 per annum. The lease runs out on 21st October 2098

You have 72 years unexpired we estimate the price of your lease extension to span between £10,500 and £12,000 plus plus your own and the landlord's "reasonable" 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 the figures in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There may be other issues that need to be taken into account and you obviously want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Please do not move forward placing reliance on this information before getting professional advice.