I have recently realised that I have 72 years left on my flat in South London. I need to extend my lease but my freeholder is can not be found. 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 mean that your lease can be granted an extra 90 years by the magistrate. However, you will be required to prove that you have used your best endeavours to locate the lessor. In some cases a specialist may be helpful to carry out a search and to produce an expert document which can be used as evidence that the freeholder is indeed missing. It is wise to seek advice from a solicitor both on investigating the landlord’s absence and the vesting order request to the County Court covering South London.

Back In 2005, I bought a leasehold flat in South London. Conveyancing and Aldermore 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 1995. The conveyancing solicitor in South London who previously acted has long since retired.What should I do?

The first thing you should do is make enquiries of HMLR to make sure that this person is in fact the registered owner of the freehold reversion. You do not need to instruct a South London 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 freeholder, under the Limitation Act 1980 the limitation period for recovery of ground rent is six years.

I work for a busy estate agent office in South London where we see a number of leasehold sales put at risk as a result of leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have received conflicting advice from local South London conveyancing solicitors. Can you shed some light as to whether the vendor of a flat can initiate the lease extension process for the buyer?

Provided that the seller has been the owner for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. The benefit of this is 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 needs to be completed before, or simultaneously with completion of the disposal of the property.

Alternatively, it may be possible to agree the lease extension with the freeholder 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 top tips for leasehold conveyancing in South London with the aim of speeding up the sale process?

• Much of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in South London can be bypassed where you get in touch lawyers the minute you market your property and request that they start to collate the leasehold information needed by the purchasers’ representatives.
• The majority landlords or managing agents in South London levy fees for supplying management packs for a leasehold premises. You or your lawyers should find out the fee that they propose to charge. The management pack sought as soon as you have a buyer, thus accelerating the process. The average time it takes to obtain the necessary information is three weeks. It is the most usual reason for delay in leasehold conveyancing in South London.

If you have carried out any alterations to the residence would they have required Landlord’s permission? Have you, for example laid down wooden flooring? South London leases often stipulate that internal structural alterations or laying down wooden flooring calls for a licence issued by the Landlord consenting to such works. If you dont have the consents in place do not communicate with the landlord without checking with your solicitor before hand.

If you have had any disputes with your landlord or managing agents it is essential that these are resolved before the property is marketed. The buyers and their solicitors will be warry about purchasing a property where there is a current dispute. You will have to accept that you will have to discharge 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 are still duty bound to disclose particulars of the dispute to the purchasers, but it is clearly preferable to present the dispute as over as opposed to unsettled.

You believe that you know the number of years remaining on your lease but you should verify this by asking your conveyancers. A buyer’s conveyancer will not be happy to advise their client to where the lease term is less than 80 years. In the circumstances it is important at an early stage that you identify whether the lease term for your property needs extending. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your premises on the market for sale.

We expect to complete the disposal of our £300000 garden flat in South London in just under a week. The management company has quoted £408 for Landlord’s certificate, insurance certificate and 3 years service charge statements. Is the landlord entitled to charge an administration fee for a leasehold conveyance in South London?

South London conveyancing on leasehold apartments normally results in administration charges invoiced by management companies :

• Answering pre-exchange enquiries
• Where consent is required before sale in South London
• 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 South London leasehold premises is £350. For South London 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.

After months of dialogue we cannot agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in South London. Can we issue an application to the Residential Property Tribunal Service?

in cases where there is a missing freeholder or if there is disagreement about the premium for a lease extension, under the relevant statutes you can apply to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) to determine the price payable.

An example of a Lease Extension decision for a South London residence is Flat B 10 Grove Avenue in October 2013. Following a vesting order Clerkenwell and Shoreditch County Court 3rd July 2013 The tribunal determines that the premium payable for the lease extension was £36,215.00 This case was in relation to 1 flat. The remaining number of years on the lease was 65.21 years.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in South London