I want to sublet my leasehold apartment in Rayleigh. Conveyancing solicitor who did the purchase is retired - so can't ask her. Is permission from the freeholder required?

Some leases for properties in Rayleigh do contain a provision to say that subletting is only permitted with prior consent from the landlord. The landlord cannot unreasonably withhold but, in such cases, they would need to see references. Experience suggests that problems are usually caused by unsatisfactory tenants rather than owner-occupiers and for that reason you can expect the freeholder to take up the references and consider them carefully before granting consent.

I've recently bought a leasehold house in Rayleigh. Am I liable to pay service charges relating to a period prior to my ownership?

In a situation 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. However, your landlord may still be able to take action to forfeit the lease. A critical element of leasehold conveyancing for your conveyancer to ensure 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 a negotiator for a reputable estate agent office in Rayleigh where we have witnessed a few leasehold sales derailed due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have received contradictory information from local Rayleigh conveyancing solicitors. Could you shed some light as to whether the seller of a flat can instigate the lease extension formalities for the buyer?

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 buyer need not have to wait 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed prior to, or simultaneously with completion of the sale.

An alternative approach is to agree the lease extension with the freeholder 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.

All being well we will complete the disposal of our £ 450000 flat in Rayleigh in just under a week. The landlords agents has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Certificate of Compliance, building insurance schedule and 3 years statements of service charge. Is the landlord entitled to charge an administration fee for a leasehold conveyance in Rayleigh?

Rayleigh conveyancing on leasehold flats typically involves administration charges raised by freeholders :

• Answering conveyancing due diligence questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Rayleigh
• 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 Rayleigh leasehold premises is £350. For Rayleigh 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 required to supply answers.

Are there frequently found problems that you encounter in leases for Rayleigh properties?

There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Rayleigh. All leases is drafted differently and drafting errors can result in certain provisions are wrong. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:

• Repairing obligations to or maintain parts of the property
• A duty to insure the building
• Clauses dealing with recovering service charges for expenditure on the building or common parts.
• Maintenance charge proportions which don’t add up to the correct percentage

You could encounter a problem when selling your property if you have a defective lease primarily because it impacts on the ability to obtain a mortgage on the property. Santander, The Mortgage Works, and Alliance & Leicester all have express requirements when it comes to what is expected in a lease. If a mortgage lender believes that the lease is problematic they may refuse to provide security, obliging the purchaser to pull out.

Rayleigh Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - Sample of Queries Prior to Purchasing

Are there any major works in the near future that will likely add a premium to the service costs? The majority of Rayleigh leasehold apartments will be liable to pay a service bill for maintenance of the block set by the freeholder. Where you purchase the property you will have to pay this amount, normally quarterly during the year. This may vary from two or three hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for bigger purpose-built blocks. In all likelihood there will be a rentcharge for you to pay yearly, this is usually not a significant figure, say around £25-£75 but you should to enquire it because occasionally it can be prohibitively expensive.