I have recently realised that I have 62 years unexpired on my lease in Rise Park. I need to extend my lease but my freeholder is missing. What options are available to me?

On the basis that you qualify, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can submit an application to the County Court for an order to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will enable the lease to be extended by the Court. However, you will be required to prove that you have made all reasonable attempts to find the lessor. On the whole a specialist may be helpful to carry out a search and prepare an expert document to be accepted by the court as proof that the landlord is indeed missing. It is advisable to get professional help from a conveyancer both on investigating the landlord’s absence and the vesting order request to the County Court covering Rise Park.

You should [be sent a copy of the lease|receive a copy of the lease]

Due to sign contracts shortly on a garden flat in Rise Park. Conveyancing solicitors inform me that they will have a report out to me tomorrow. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?

Your report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in Rise Park should include some of the following:

• Details of the parties to the lease, for example these could be the leaseholder (you), head lessor, landlord
• Defining your rights in respect of common areas in the block.E.G., does the lease contain a right of way over a path or staircase?
• Are you allowed to have a pet in the flat?
• You must be told what counts as a Nuisance in the lease
• Repair and maintenance of the flat
• 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 details of the information to be contained in your report on your leasehold property in Rise Park please enquire of your solicitor in advance of your conveyancing in Rise Park

Do you have any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Rise Park from the point of view of expediting the sale process?

• Much of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Rise Park can be reduced where you appoint lawyers the minute you market your property and ask them to collate the leasehold information which will be required by the buyers solicitors.
• The majority freeholders or Management Companies in Rise Park levy fees for providing management packs for a leasehold homes. You or your lawyers should find out the fee that they propose to charge. The management information can be applied for as soon as you have a buyer, thus reducing delays. The average time it takes to receive management information is three weeks. It is the most usual cause of delay in leasehold conveyancing in Rise Park.
• A minority of Rise Park leases require Landlord’s consent to the sale and approval of the buyers. If this applies to your lease, you should place the estate agents on notice to make sure that the purchasers put in hand financial (bank) and professional references. Any bank reference should make it clear that the buyer is able to meet 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 actual amount of the service charge so that they can pass this information on to the buyers or their lawyers.
• If there is a history of conflict with your freeholder 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 property where there is a current dispute. You will have to accept that you will have to pay any arrears of service charge or settle the dispute prior to completion of the sale. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled prior to the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You will still have to reveal details of the dispute to the buyers, but it is better to present the dispute as over rather than unsettled.
• If you have the benefit of shareholding in the freehold, you should make sure that you have the original share document. Organising a duplicate share certificate is often a time consuming formality and frustrates many a Rise Park conveyancing transaction. If a duplicate share certificate is required, do contact the company officers or managing agents (if relevant) for this as soon as possible.

Our conveyancer has advised that he intends to complete and exchange simultaneously on our sale of a £ 500000 apartment in Rise Park in just under a week. The management company has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Certificate of Compliance, building insurance schedule and previous years statements of service charge. Is the landlord entitled to charge such fees for a leasehold conveyance in Rise Park?

Rise Park conveyancing on leasehold maisonettes usually involves administration charges invoiced by managing agents :

• Addressing pre-exchange enquiries
• Where consent is required before sale in Rise Park
• 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 lawyer will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for Rise Park leasehold premises is £350. For Rise Park 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 provide the information.

We have reached the end of our tether in trying to purchase the freehold in Rise Park. Can the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal adjudicate on premiums?

Most certainly. We are happy to put you in touch with a Rise Park conveyancing firm who can help.

An example of a Lease Extension decision for a Rise Park property is Flat b 14 Kemble Road in May 2014. The Tribunal assessed the value of the premium payable for the lease extension to be £9,761 This case affected 1 flat.

What makes a Rise Park lease problematic?

There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Rise Park. Most leases are unique and legal mistakes in the legal wording can sometimes mean that certain sections are missing. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:

• Repairing obligations to or maintain elements 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 may encounter difficulties when selling your property if you have a defective lease primarily because it impacts on the ability to obtain a mortgage on the property. Halifax, Chelsea Building Society, and Platform Home Loans Ltd all have express conveyancing instructions when it comes to what is expected in a lease. If a mortgage lender believes that the lease does not cover certain provisions they may refuse to grant the mortgage, forcing the purchaser to pull out.

Rise Park Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - Examples of Questions you should consider before Purchasing

Does this lease have in excess of 80 years unexpired?