Having checked my lease I have discovered that there are only Sixty One years remaining on my lease in Sale. I need to extend my lease but my freeholder is missing. What should I do?

If you meet the appropriate requirements, 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 mean that your lease can be lengthened by the magistrate. However, you will be required to demonstrate that you have done all that could be expected to track down the lessor. On the whole a specialist may be useful to conduct investigations and to produce an expert document to be used as proof that the freeholder is indeed missing. It is wise to seek advice from a property lawyer both on proving the landlord’s disappearance and the application to the County Court covering Sale.

Due to complete next month on a garden flat in Sale. Conveyancing solicitors 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 Sale should include some of the following:

• Details of the parties to the lease, for example these could be the leaseholder (you), head lessor, landlord
• Does the lease prevent you from subletting the property, or working from home
• Whether your lease has a provision for a sinking fund?
• Repair and maintenance of the flat
• The landlord’s rights to access the flat you be made aware that your landlord has rights of access and I know how much notice s/he must provide.
• 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
• What you can do if a neighbour is in violation of a provision in their lease?

I’m about to sell my 2 bed flat in Sale.Conveyancing has not commenced but I have just had a yearly service charge invoice – should I leave it to the buyer to sort out?

Your conveyancing lawyer is likely to suggest that you should clear the service charge 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 managing agents will not acknowledge the buyer until 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. This will smooth the conveyancing process.

Last month I purchased a leasehold flat in Sale. Am I liable to pay service charges for periods before my ownership?

Where the service charge has already been demanded from the previous owner 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 agent office in Sale where we have witnessed a number of leasehold sales jeopardised due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given inconsistent advice from local Sale conveyancing firms. Can you shed some light as to whether the seller of a flat can commence 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 kick-start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. This means that the buyer can avoid having to sit tight for 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed before, or simultaneously with completion of the sale.

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.

Leasehold Conveyancing in Sale - Examples of Queries before Purchasing

Plenty Sale leasehold apartments will be liable to pay a service bill for the upkeep of the building invoiced by the freeholder. If you acquire the apartment you will have to meet this charge, normally quarterly accross the year. This may be anything from two or three hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for bigger purpose-built buildings. There will also be a rentcharge for you to pay yearly, ordinarily this is not a large sum, say around £25-£75 but you need to check as on occasion it can be many hundreds of pounds. In the main the cost for major works are not included within service charges, although a few managing agents in Sale obliged leasehold owners to contribute towards a sinking fund created for the specific intention of building a fund for larger works.