Having checked my lease I have discovered that there are only 62 years remaining on my lease in Penistone. I now want to get lease extension but my freeholder is missing. What are my options?

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 enable the lease to be granted an extra 90 years by the Court. However, you will be required to demonstrate that you or your lawyers have made all reasonable attempts to locate the freeholder. On the whole an enquiry agent may be helpful to conduct investigations and prepare a report which can be used as evidence that the freeholder can not be located. It is advisable to get professional help from a solicitor in relation to devolving into the landlord’s disappearance and the vesting order request to the County Court overseeing Penistone.

Estate agents have just been given the go-ahead to market my 2 bed flat in Penistone.Conveyancing lawyers have not yet been instructed but I have just had a half-yearly maintenance charge invoice – should I leave it to the buyer to sort out?

Your conveyancing lawyer is likely to suggest that you should pay the service charge as normal because all ground rent and service charges will be apportioned on completion, so you will be reimbursed by the buyer for the period running from after the completion date to the next payment date. Most management companies will not acknowledge the buyer until the service charges have been paid and are up to date so it is important for both buyer and seller for the seller to show that they are up to date. Having a clear account will assist your cause and will leave you no worse off financially.

Back In 2006, I bought a leasehold flat in Penistone. Conveyancing and TSB mortgage went though with no issue. A letter has just been received from someone claiming to own the reversionary interest in the property. Attached was a ground rent demand for rent dating back to 1995. The conveyancing practitioner in Penistone who previously acted has long since retired.Any advice?

The first thing you should do is contact the Land Registry to be sure that this person is in fact the new freeholder. It is not necessary to incur the fees of a Penistone conveyancing lawyer to do this as you can do this on the Land Registry website for less than a fiver. You should note that in any event, even if this is the rightful freeholder, under the Limitation Act 1980 the limitation period for recovery of ground rent is six years.

Do you have any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Penistone with the aim of expediting the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Penistone can be avoided where you get in touch lawyers as soon as you market your property and request that they start to put together the leasehold information needed by the purchasers’ conveyancers.
• If you have carried out any alterations to the property would they have required Landlord’s permission? In particular have you installed wooden flooring? Most leases in Penistone state that internal structural alterations or laying down wooden flooring calls for a licence issued by the Landlord acquiescing to such works. Should you fail to have the approvals to hand do not communicate with the landlord without contacting your solicitor in advance.

A minority of Penistone leases require Landlord’s consent to the sale and approval of the buyers. If this is the case, you should place the estate agents on notice to make sure that the purchasers obtain financial (bank) and professional references. Any bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are financially capable of paying the yearly 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 service charge figures so that they can pass this information on to the purchasers or their solicitors.

If you have had conflict with your landlord or managing agents it is very important that these are resolved before the property is put on the market. The buyers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a flat where a dispute is ongoing. You may need to swallow your pride and pay any arrears of service charge or settle 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 will still have to reveal particulars of the dispute to the buyers, but it is better to reveal the dispute as over rather than unresolved.

You believe that you know the number of years remaining on your lease but you should verify this via your lawyers. A purchaser's conveyancer will not be happy to advise their client to where the lease term is under 80 years. It is therefore important at an as soon as possible that you consider whether the lease for your property needs extending. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your premises on the market for sale.

We expect to complete the sale of our £250000 flat in Penistone in just under a week. The managing agents has quoted £408 for Certificate of Compliance, insurance certificate and 3 years service charge statements. Is the landlord entitled to charge an administration fee for a leasehold conveyance in Penistone?

Penistone conveyancing on leasehold apartments ordinarily results in fees being invoiced by managing agents :

• Addressing pre-contract enquiries
• Where consent is required before sale in Penistone
• Supplying insurance information
• Deeds of covenant upon sale
• Registering of the assignment of the change of lessee after a sale

Your solicitor will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for Penistone leasehold property is £350. For Penistone 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.

I am the registered owner of a garden flat in Penistone, conveyancing formalities finalised 7 years ago. Can you give me give me an indication of the likely cost of a lease extension? Corresponding flats in Penistone with an extended lease are worth £243,000. The ground rent is £60 levied per year. The lease finishes on 21st October 2082

You have 57 years left to run we estimate the price of your lease extension to be between £26,600 and £30,800 plus legals.

The suggested premium range above a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we are not able to advice on the actual costs in the absence of comprehensive due diligence. You should not use this information in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There may be additional issues that need to be taken into account and clearly you should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. You should not move forward placing reliance on this information before seeking the advice of a professional.

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Lease Extensions in Penistone