Having checked my lease I have discovered that there are only 68 years unexpired on my flat in Pevensey. I need to extend my lease but my freeholder is missing. What should I do?

On the basis that you qualify, 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 lengthened by the Court. You will be obliged to demonstrate that you have done all that could be expected to track down the freeholder. In some cases a specialist would be useful to try and locate and to produce an expert document to be accepted by the court as evidence that the landlord is indeed missing. It is advisable to get professional help from a conveyancer in relation to investigating the landlord’s disappearance and the application to the County Court covering Pevensey.

I’m about to sell my garden apartment in Pevensey.Conveyancing is yet to be initiated but I have just received a yearly maintenance charge demand – should I leave it to the buyer to sort out?

Your conveyancing lawyer is likely to suggest that you should discharge the invoice 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 unless 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.

I work for a reputable estate agent office in Pevensey where we see a few leasehold sales put at risk as a result of short leases. I have received contradictory information from local Pevensey conveyancing solicitors. Could you shed some light as to whether the vendor of a flat can initiate the lease extension process for the buyer?

Provided that the seller has owned the lease 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 wait 2 years for a lease extension. 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 disposal of the property.

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.

What advice can you give us when it comes to finding a Pevensey conveyancing firm to deal with our lease extension?

If you are instructing a conveyancer for lease extension works (regardless if they are a Pevensey conveyancing firm) it is imperative that they be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of work. We suggested that you make enquires with several firms including non Pevensey conveyancing practices before you instructing a firm. If the firm 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 conducted in Pevensey in the last twenty four months?

What makes a Pevensey lease problematic?

There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Pevensey. All leases is drafted differently and legal mistakes in the legal wording can result in certain clauses are wrong. The following missing provisions could result in a defective lease:

• Repairing obligations to or maintain parts of the property
• Insurance obligations
• A provision for the recovery of money spent for the benefit of another party.
• Maintenance charge proportions which don’t add up to the correct percentage

A defective lease can cause problems when trying to sell a property primarily because it impacts on the ability to obtain a mortgage on the property. Birmingham Midshires, Norwich and Peterborough Building Society, and Alliance & Leicester all have express conveyancing instructions when it comes to what is expected in a lease. Where a lender has been advised by their lawyers that the lease is defective they may refuse to provide security, forcing the buyer to pull out.

Pevensey Leasehold Conveyancing - Sample of Queries before Purchasing

On the whole the cost for major works are not included within service charges, although some managing agents in Pevensey ask leaseholders to contribute towards a reserve fund created for the specific purpose of establishing a fund for larger repairs or maintenance. Most Pevensey leasehold flats will be liable to pay a service bill for maintenance of the block invoiced by the landlord. Should you acquire the flat you will have to pay this amount, usually quarterly accross the year. This could vary from two or three hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for large purpose-built blocks. There will also be a ground rent to be met yearly, ordinarily this is not a large figure, say around £50-£100 but you need to enquire it because on occasion it could be prohibitively expensive.