There are only 62 years remaining on my flat in Pontllanfraith. I am keen to extend my lease but my landlord is absent. What options are available to me?

If you qualify, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can submit an application to the County Court for for permission to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will enable the lease to be lengthened by the magistrate. You will be obliged to prove that you or your lawyers have done all that could be expected to track down the landlord. In some cases a specialist should be useful to try and locate and to produce an expert document which can be used as evidence that the freeholder is indeed missing. It is wise to seek advice from a conveyancer in relation to investigating the landlord’s absence and the vesting order request to the County Court overseeing Pontllanfraith.

I've recently bought a leasehold house in Pontllanfraith. Am I liable to pay service charges for periods before 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. A critical element 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 work for a busy estate agency in Pontllanfraith where we have witnessed a few leasehold sales put at risk due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given inconsistent advice from local Pontllanfraith conveyancing solicitors. Could you confirm whether the owner of a flat can initiate the lease extension process for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

Provided that the seller has been the owner 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 wait 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed before, 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.

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

• A significant proportion of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Pontllanfraith can be bypassed if you appoint lawyers the minute your agents start marketing the property and request that they start to put together the leasehold information needed by the buyers conveyancers.
• Many freeholders or managing agents in Pontllanfraith levy fees for supplying management packs for a leasehold homes. You or your lawyers should find out the actual amount of the charges. The management pack sought as soon as you have a buyer, thus accelerating the process. The average time it takes to obtain the necessary information is three weeks. It is the most frequent reason for frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Pontllanfraith.

Completion in due on the disposal of our £225000 maisonette in Pontllanfraith in seven days. The freeholder has quoted £312 for Certificate of Compliance, insurance certificate and 3 years service charge statements. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge such fees for a leasehold conveyance in Pontllanfraith?

Pontllanfraith conveyancing on leasehold apartments more often than not necessitates the purchaser’s solicitor sending enquiries for the landlord to answer. Although the landlord is not legally bound to address these enquiries the majority will be content to assist. They are at liberty invoice a reasonable administration fee for responding to enquiries or supplying documentation. There is no upper cap for such fees. The average costs for the information that you are referring to is over three hundred pounds, in some transactions it is in excess of £800. The administration charge demanded by the landlord must be accompanied by a synopsis of rights and obligations in respect of administration fees, otherwise the charge is not strictly payable. Reality however dictates that one has no option but to pay whatever is demanded if you want to exchange contracts with the buyer.

I bought a 1 bedroom flat in Pontllanfraith, conveyancing formalities finalised 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? Corresponding flats in Pontllanfraith with over 90 years remaining are worth £195,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £55 invoiced annually. The lease ceases on 21st October 2091

You have 66 years left to run we estimate the price of your lease extension to range between £11,400 and £13,200 plus costs.

The figure above a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we are not able to supply the actual costs in the absence of comprehensive investigations. You should not use this information in tribunal or court proceedings. There may be other concerns that need to be taken into account and you obviously should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. You should not move forward based on this information without first seeking the advice of a professional.

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Lease Extensions in Pontllanfraith