Jane (my partner) and I may need to rent out our St Austell 1st floor flat for a while due to a career opportunity. We instructed a St Austell conveyancing firm in 2003 but they have since shut and we did not have the foresight to get any advice as to whether the lease prohibits the subletting of the flat. How do we find out?

Some leases for properties in St Austell do contain a provision to say that subletting is only permitted with prior consent from the landlord. The landlord cannot unreasonably withhold but, in such cases, they would need to review references. Experience suggests that problems are usually caused by unsatisfactory tenants rather than owner-occupiers and for that reason you can expect the freeholder to take up the references and consider them carefully before granting permission.

I have recently realised that I have Fifty years unexpired on my lease in St Austell. I now wish to extend my lease but my landlord is absent. What options are available to me?

On the basis that you qualify, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the County Court for for permission 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. You will be obliged to demonstrate that you or your lawyers have used your best endeavours to locate the freeholder. On the whole a specialist would be useful to try and locate and to produce a report which can be accepted by the court as evidence that the landlord can not be located. It is advisable to get professional help from a property lawyer both on proving the landlord’s absence and the vesting order request to the County Court covering St Austell.

Planning to exchange soon on a ground floor flat in St Austell. Conveyancing lawyers have said that they report fully within the next couple of days. What should I be looking out for?

Your report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in St Austell should include some of the following:

• Are pets allowed in the flat?
• You need to be told what constitutes a Nuisance in the lease
• Ground rent - how much and when you need to pay, and also know whether this will change in the future
• Whether your lease has a provision for a sinking fund?
• I don't know whether the lease allows me to alter or improve anything in the flat - you should know whether it applies to all alterations or just structural alteration, and whether consent is required
• Responsibility for repairing the window frames
• What the implications are if you breach a clause of your lease?

I have just started marketing my garden flat in St Austell.Conveyancing solicitors are to be appointed soon but I have just received a half-yearly service charge invoice – what should I do?

The sensible thing to do is discharge 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 managing agents 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.

I am employed by a long established estate agent office in St Austell where we see a few leasehold sales put at risk as a result of leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have received inconsistent advice from local St Austell conveyancing firms. Please can you confirm whether the owner of a flat can start the lease extension process for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

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. The benefit of this is that the buyer can avoid having to sit tight for 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 at the same time as completion of the disposal of the property.

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 purchaser.

St Austell Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - Examples of Questions you should ask Prior to Purchasing

Is the freehold owned collectively by the tenants? Who are the managing agents?