I have recently realised that I have 68 years unexpired on my lease in Poundbury. I am keen to extend my lease but my landlord is absent. What options are available to me?

If 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 mean that your lease can be lengthened by the magistrate. You will be obliged to prove that you have done all that could be expected to find the landlord. For most situations an enquiry agent may be useful to conduct investigations and to produce a report to be accepted by the court as evidence that the freeholder can not be located. It is advisable to get professional help from a solicitor both on investigating the landlord’s disappearance and the vesting order request to the County Court covering Poundbury.

Due to complete next month on a leasehold property in Poundbury. Conveyancing lawyers inform me that they report fully on Monday. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?

The report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in Poundbury should include some of the following:

• Details of the parties to the lease, for example these could be the leaseholder (you), head lessor, landlord

Whether your lease has a provision for a sinking fund?

You should have a good understanding of the insurance provisions

Repair and maintenance of the flat

Changes to the flat (alterations and additions)

The landlord’s obligations to repair and maintain the building. It is important that you know who is responsible for the repair and maintenance of every part of the building

Responsibility for repairing the window frames For a comprehensive list of information to be included in your report on your leasehold property in Poundbury please enquire of your conveyancer in ahead of your conveyancing in Poundbury

I today plan to offer on a house that appears to meet my requirements, at a reasonable figure which is making it more attractive. I have just been informed that the title is leasehold rather than freehold. I would have thought that there are issues buying a house with a leasehold title in Poundbury. Conveyancing lawyers have are about to be appointed. Will my lawyers set out the risks of buying a leasehold house in Poundbury ?

Most houses in Poundbury are freehold rather than leasehold. In this scenario it’s worth having a local conveyancer who is familiar with the area can help the conveyancing process. it is apparent that you are buying in Poundbury so you should seriously consider looking for a Poundbury conveyancing practitioner and check that they have experience in dealing with leasehold houses. First you will need to check the unexpired lease term. As a leaseholder you will not be entirely free to do whatever you want with the house. The lease comes with conditions such as requiring the freeholder’sconsent to carry out alterations. You may also be required to pay a service charge towards the maintenance of the communal areas where the property is located on an estate. Your solicitor should advise you fully on all the issues.

I am a negotiator for a reputable estate agency in Poundbury where we have experienced a few flat sales put at risk due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given contradictory information from local Poundbury conveyancing solicitors. Could you shed some light as to whether the vendor of a flat can instigate the lease extension formalities 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 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.

Completion in due on the disposal of our £375000 maisonette in Poundbury in just under a week. The freeholder has quoted £312 for Landlord’s certificate, building insurance schedule and previous years service charge statements. Is the landlord entitled to charge an administration fee for a leasehold conveyance in Poundbury?

For the majority of leasehold sales in Poundbury conveyancing will involve, questions about the management of a building inevitably needing to be answered directly by the freeholder or its agent, this includes :

• Answering conveyancing due diligence questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Poundbury
• 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 Poundbury leasehold property is £350. For Poundbury 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 bought a leasehold flat in Poundbury, conveyancing having been completed half a dozen years ago. Can you let me have an estimated range of the fair premium for a lease extension? Equivalent flats in Poundbury with over 90 years remaining are worth £247,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £65 charged once a year. The lease comes to an end on 21st October 2078

You have 55 years left to run we estimate the price of your lease extension to range between £26,600 and £30,800 plus professional fees.

The suggested premium range that we have given is a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we cannot give you the actual costs in the absence of comprehensive due diligence. Do not use this information in tribunal or court proceedings. There may be other issues that need to be considered and clearly you should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. You should not move forward placing reliance on this information before getting professional advice.

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Lease Extensions in Poundbury