Having had my offer accepted I require leasehold conveyancing in Sawston. Before I set the wheels in motion I would like to find out the remaining lease term.

Assuming the lease is registered - and almost all are in Sawston - then the leasehold title will always include the short particulars of the lease, namely the date; the term; and the original parties. From a conveyancing perspective such details then enable any prospective buyer and lender to confirm that any lease they are looking at is the one relevant to that title.For any other purpose, such as confirming how long the term was granted for and calculating what is left, then the register should be sufficient on it's own.

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

Looking forward to complete next month on a garden flat in Sawston. Conveyancing lawyers assured me that they will have a report out to me on Monday. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?

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

• Setting out your legal entitlements in respect of the communal areas in the building.For instance, does the lease permit a right of way over an accessway or staircase?
• Whether the lease restricts you from letting out the property, or having a home office for business
• Ground rent - how much and when you need to pay, and also know whether this will change in the future
• You should have a good understanding of the insurance provisions
• Changes to the flat (alterations and additions)
• Whether the landlord has obligations to ensure rights of quiet enjoyment over your premises and do you know what it means in practice?
• 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

For details of the information to be contained in your report on your leasehold property in Sawston please ask your solicitor in ahead of your conveyancing in Sawston

Estate agents have just been given the go-ahead to market my garden apartment in Sawston.Conveyancing is yet to be initiated but I have just had a quarterly maintenance charge demand – Do I pay up?

The sensible thing to do is pay the invoice 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 unless 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.

I work for a reputable estate agency in Sawston where we see a few leasehold sales jeopardised as a result of short leases. I have been given inconsistent advice from local Sawston conveyancing firms. Can you shed some light as to whether the owner of a flat can initiate the lease extension process for the buyer?

Provided that 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 buyer 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 before, or at the same time as 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 buyer.

If all goes to plan we aim to complete the disposal of our £ 425000 apartment in Sawston next Monday . The management company has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Certificate of Compliance, insurance certificate and previous years statements of service charge. Is the landlord entitled to charge exorbitant fees for a flat conveyance in Sawston?

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

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

Sawston Leasehold Conveyancing - A selection of Queries Prior to buying

What prohibitions are there in the Sawston Lease? You will want to discover as much as you can about the company managing the building as they will impact your use and enjoyment of the property. Being a leasehold owner you are frequently at the mercy of the managing agents from a financial perspective and when it comes to day to day issues such as the cleanliness of the communal areas. Ask prospective neighbours what they think of their management. Finally, find out the dates that the maintenance charges are due to the managing agents and precisely what you get for your money.