I have recently realised that I have 72 years remaining on my flat in Silverstone. I now wish to get lease extension but my landlord is absent. What are my options?

If 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 granted an extra 90 years by the Court. However, you will be required to prove that you or your lawyers have made all reasonable attempts to find the lessor. On the whole an enquiry agent should be helpful to conduct investigations and to produce an expert document to be accepted by the court as proof that the landlord can not be located. It is wise to seek advice from a conveyancer in relation to devolving into the landlord’s absence and the vesting order request to the County Court covering Silverstone.

Estate agents have just been given the go-ahead to market my ground floor apartment in Silverstone.Conveyancing has not commenced but I have just received a half-yearly service charge invoice – what should I do?

The sensible thing to do is pay 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 management companies 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.

Back In 2003, I bought a leasehold flat in Silverstone. Conveyancing and Clydesdale mortgage organised. I have received a letter from someone saying they have taken over the freehold. It included a ground rent demand for rent dating back to 1997. The conveyancing practitioner in Silverstone who acted for me is not around.What should I do?

The first thing you should do is make enquiries of the Land Registry to make sure that this person is in fact the registered owner of the freehold reversion. There is no need to incur the fees of a Silverstone conveyancing lawyer to do this as you can do this on the Land Registry website for less than a fiver. You should note that regardless, even if this is the rightful landlord, under the Limitation Act 1980 the limitation period for recovery of ground rent is six years.

Do you have any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Silverstone from the point of view of expediting the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Silverstone can be bypassed if you get in touch lawyers as soon as your agents start marketing the property and request that they start to collate the leasehold information needed by the purchasers’ solicitors.
• In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s approval? In particular have you laid down wooden flooring? Most leases in Silverstone state that internal structural changes or addition of wooden flooring calls for a licence from the Landlord consenting to such works. Should you fail to have the approvals in place you should not communicate with the landlord without contacting your conveyancer in the first instance.

If you have had conflict with your freeholder or managing agents it is essential that these are settled prior to the flat being put on the market. The purchasers and their solicitors will be concerned about purchasing a flat where there is an ongoing dispute. You may have to bite the bullet and discharge any arrears of service charge or resolve the dispute prior to the buyers completing the purchase. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled prior to the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You are still duty bound to disclose particulars of the dispute to the purchasers, but it is clearly preferable to present the dispute as historic as opposed to unresolved.

If you are supposed to have a share in the freehold, you should ensure that you are holding the original share certificate. Arranging a replacement share certificate is often a time consuming process and delays many a Silverstone home move. If a new share certificate is needed, you should approach the company director and secretary or managing agents (if relevant) for this sooner rather than later.

You may think that you are aware of the number of years remaining on your lease but it would be advisable double-check via your conveyancers. A purchaser's lawyer will be unlikely to recommend their client to proceed with the purchase of a leasehold property the lease term is under 80 years. In the circumstances it is important at an early stage that you consider whether the lease for your property needs extending. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your home on the market for sale.

Completion in due on the disposal of our £350000 apartment in Silverstone on Friday in a week. The landlords agents has quoted £312 for Certificate of Compliance, insurance certificate and 3 years statements of service charge. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge such fees for a flat conveyance in Silverstone?

Silverstone conveyancing on leasehold maisonettes nine out of ten times involves administration charges levied by management companies :

• Addressing pre-contract questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Silverstone
• 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 conveyancer will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for Silverstone leasehold property is £350. For Silverstone 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 obliged to supply the information.

I own a studio flat in Silverstone, conveyancing formalities finalised half a dozen years ago. How much will my lease extension cost? Similar flats in Silverstone with a long lease are worth £259,000. The ground rent is £50 per annum. The lease expires on 21st October 2077

With 52 years remaining on your lease we estimate the price of your lease extension to range between £31,400 and £36,200 as well as plus your own and the landlord's "reasonable" professional fees.

The suggested premium range above a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we are not able to advice on the actual costs without more detailed due diligence. Do not use the figures in tribunal or court proceedings. There may be other issues that need to be taken into account and clearly you should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Neither should you take any other action based on this information before seeking the advice of a professional.

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Lease Extensions in Silverstone