There are only 62 years unexpired on my lease in South West London. I now wish to extend my lease but my freeholder is missing. What are my options?

If you qualify, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply 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 Court. However, you will be required to demonstrate that you have done all that could be expected to track down the landlord. For most situations an enquiry agent should be useful to carry out a search and to produce a report which can be accepted by the court as proof that the landlord can not be located. It is advisable to get professional help from a property lawyer both on investigating the landlord’s disappearance and the vesting order request to the County Court covering South West London.

I work for a busy estate agent office in South West London where we see a few leasehold sales jeopardised as a result of leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have received conflicting advice from local South West London conveyancing firms. Please can you shed some light as to whether the seller of a flat can instigate 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 start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. This means that the buyer need not have to wait 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done prior to, or simultaneously with completion of the sale.

An alternative approach is 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 buyer.

What are your top tips when it comes to choosing a South West London conveyancing practice to deal with our lease extension?

If you are instructing a conveyancer for your lease extension (regardless if they are a South West London conveyancing firm) it is most important that he or she should be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of work. We recommend that you make enquires with several firms including non South West London conveyancing practices before you instructing a firm. If the firm is ALEP accredited then that’s a bonus. Some following of questions could be useful:

• If they are not ALEP accredited then what is the reason?
• What volume of lease extensions have they conducted in South West London in the last year?

Can you provide any advice for leasehold conveyancing in South West London with the aim of speeding up the sale process?

• Much of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in South West London can be reduced where you instruct lawyers the minute you market your property and request that they start to collate the leasehold information which will be required by the purchasers’ lawyers.
• In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s approval? In particular have you installed wooden flooring? Most leases in South West London state that internal structural alterations or installing wooden flooring necessitate a licence issued by the Landlord consenting to such works. Where you dont have the paperwork to hand do not contact the landlord without checking with your solicitor before hand.
• A minority of South West London leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this applies to your lease, it would be prudent to notify your estate agents to make sure that the purchasers obtain financial (bank) and professional references. Any bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are financially capable of paying the annual service charge and the actual amount of the service charge should be quoted in the bank’s letter. You will therefore need to provide your estate agents with the actual amount of the service charge so that they can pass this information on to the purchasers or their solicitors.
• If you are supposed to have a share in the freehold, you should make sure that you have the original share certificate. Arranging a duplicate share certificate can be a lengthy formality and delays many a South West London conveyancing transaction. If a new share certificate is necessary, do contact the company officers or managing agents (if applicable) for this at the earliest opportunity.
• You believe that you know the number of years left on your lease but it would be wise to double-check via your conveyancers. A purchaser's conveyancer will be unlikely to recommend their client to proceed with the purchase of a leasehold property the lease term is below 80 years. It is therefore important at an early stage that you identify whether the lease requires a lease extension. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your home on the market for sale.

Having spent years of correspondence we are unable to agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in South West London. Can we issue an application to the Residential Property Tribunal Service?

in cases where there is a absentee landlord or if there is dispute about what the lease extension should cost, under the relevant legislation it is possible to make an application to the LVT to judgment on the price payable.

An example of a Freehold Enfranchisement matter before the tribunal for a South West London property is 78 & 80 Newport Road in January 2013. the Tribunal concluded that the premium to be paid by the leaseholder in respect of the freehold reversion is £23,105 This case was in relation to 2 flats. The unexpired lease term was 71.63 years.

When it comes to leasehold conveyancing in South West London what are the most frequent lease problems?

Leasehold conveyancing in South West London is not unique. Most leases are individual and drafting errors can result in certain clauses are erroneous. The following missing provisions could result in a defective lease:

• A provision to repair to or maintain parts of the property
• Insurance obligations
• A provision for the recovery of money spent for the benefit of another party.
• Service charge per centages that don't add up correctly leaving a shortfall

You will encounter a problem when selling your property if you have a defective lease primarily because it impacts on the ability to obtain a mortgage on the property. National Westminster Bank, Coventry Building Society, and Platform Home Loans Ltd all have express requirements when it comes to what is expected in a lease. Where a lender has been advised by their lawyers that the lease does not cover certain provisions they may refuse to grant the mortgage, obliging the purchaser to pull out.

South West London Leasehold Conveyancing - Sample of Questions you should ask before Purchasing

The prefered form of lease structure is a share of the freehold. In this arrangement the tenants benefit from control and although a managing agent is usually employed where the building is bigger than a house conversion, the managing agent acts for the leaseholders themselves. It would be sensible to investigate if there is anything that is prohibited in the lease. For example some leases prohibit pets being allowed in certain buildings in South West London. If you love the apartmentin South West London yet your cat is not allowed to make the move with you then you have a very hard decision.