Having checked my lease I have discovered that there are only 68 years left on my lease in Sale. I now want to extend my lease but my landlord is missing. What options are available to me?

On the basis that 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 for permission 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 demonstrate that you have used your best endeavours to track down the landlord. For most situations a specialist would be useful to try and locate and to produce an expert document which can be used as evidence that the landlord is indeed missing. It is wise to seek advice from a solicitor both on devolving into the landlord’s disappearance and the vesting order request to the County Court covering Sale.

Back In 2001, I bought a leasehold flat in Sale. Conveyancing and Bank of Ireland mortgage went though with no issue. I have received a letter from someone claiming to own the freehold. Attached was a demand for arrears of ground rent dating back to 1995. The conveyancing solicitor in Sale who acted for me is not around.Do I pay?

The first thing you should do is make enquiries of the Land Registry to be sure that this person is in fact the registered owner of the freehold reversion. There is no need to incur the fees of a Sale conveyancing practitioner to do this as it can be done on-line for a few pound. You should note that in any event, even if this is the legitimate landlord, under the Limitation Act 1980 the limitation period for recovery of ground rent is six years.

I am employed by a long established estate agency in Sale where we have witnessed a few leasehold sales put at risk due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have received conflicting advice from local Sale conveyancing solicitors. Could you confirm whether the vendor of a flat can initiate 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 proposed purchaser need not have to sit tight for 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done prior to, or at the same time as 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 purchaser.

Do you have any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Sale from the point of view of speeding up the sale process?

• Much of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Sale can be avoided if you get in touch lawyers as soon as you market your property and ask them to collate the leasehold information needed by the buyers conveyancers.
• The majority landlords or managing agents in Sale charge for supplying management packs for a leasehold premises. You or your lawyers should enquire as to the fee that they propose to charge. The management information sought as soon as you have a buyer, thus accelerating the process. The typical amount of time it takes to obtain the necessary information is three weeks. It is the most frequent reason for delay in leasehold conveyancing in Sale.
• In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s approval? In particular have you laid down wooden flooring? Sale leases often stipulate that internal structural alterations or laying down wooden flooring calls for a licence from the Landlord consenting to such changes. Should you dont have the approvals to hand do not contact the landlord without contacting your solicitor in advance.
• If there is a history of conflict with your landlord or managing agents it is very important that these are settled before the property is marketed. The buyers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a flat where there is a current dispute. You may have to bite the bullet and pay any arrears of service charge or resolve the dispute prior to completion of the sale. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled ahead of 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 reveal the dispute as historic as opposed to unresolved.
• If you hold a share in a the Management Company, you should make sure that you have the original share document. Organising a replacement share certificate can be a lengthy process and delays many a Sale home move. If a duplicate share certificate is required, do contact the company director and secretary or managing agents (if applicable) for this as soon as possible.

All being well we will complete the disposal of our £ 425000 maisonette in Sale next Thursday . The freeholder has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> 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 Sale?

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

• Completing conveyancing due diligence questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Sale
• 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 Sale leasehold property is £350. For Sale 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 answers.

I inherited a split level flat in Sale, conveyancing was carried out half a dozen years ago. Can you please calculate a probable premium for a statutory lease extension? Comparable flats in Sale with a long lease are worth £195,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £65 invoiced annually. The lease comes to an end on 21st October 2076

With 50 years left to run the likely cost is going to span between £31,400 and £36,200 as well as costs.

The suggested premium range that we have given is a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we are not able to advice on the actual costs in the absence of detailed investigations. Do not use this information in tribunal or court proceedings. There may be additional concerns that need to be taken into account and clearly you want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Please do not take any other action placing reliance on this information before seeking the advice of a professional.