My wife and I may need to sub-let our Stilton garden flat for a while due to taking a sabbatical. We instructed a Stilton conveyancing practice in 2004 but they have since shut and we did not think at the time get any guidance as to whether the lease permits subletting. How do we find out?

Even though your previous Stilton conveyancing lawyer is no longer around you can check your lease to see if you are permitted to let out the property. The accepted inference is that if the lease is non-specific, subletting is permitted. There may be a precondition that you need to obtain consent via your landlord or other appropriate person before subletting. This means that you cannot sublet without prior consent. The consent is not allowed to be unreasonably withheld. If your lease does not allow you to sublet you will need to ask your landlord if they are willing to waive this restriction.

I have recently realised that I have 72 years remaining on my lease in Stilton. I am keen to get lease extension but my landlord is missing. 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 an order to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will enable the lease to be lengthened by the magistrate. However, you will be required to demonstrate that you have used your best endeavours to track down the landlord. In some cases an enquiry agent may be useful to try and locate and to produce a report which can be accepted by the court as proof that the freeholder is indeed missing. It is advisable to get professional help from a property lawyer in relation to devolving into the landlord’s absence and the vesting order request to the County Court overseeing Stilton.

I've recently bought a leasehold flat in Stilton. Do I have any liability for service charges relating to a period prior to completion of my purchase?

Where the service charge has already been demanded from the previous lessee and they have not paid you would not usually be personally liable for the arrears. Strange as it may seem, your landlord may still be able to take action to forfeit the lease. It is an essential part of leasehold conveyancing for your conveyancer to be sure to have an up to date clear service charge receipt before completion of your purchase. If you have a mortgage this is likely to be a requirement of your lender.

If you purchase part way through an accounting year you may be liable for charges not yet demanded even if they relate to a period prior to your purchase. In such circumstances your conveyancer would normally arrange for the seller to set aside some money to cover their part of the period (usually called a service charge retention).

Do you have any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Stilton with the purpose of saving time on the sale process?

• Much of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Stilton can be reduced where you appoint lawyers the minute you market your property and request that they start to put together the leasehold information which will be required by the purchasers’ representatives.
• In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s permission? In particular have you installed wooden flooring? Most leases in Stilton state that internal structural alterations or laying down wooden flooring necessitate a licence issued by the Landlord consenting to such changes. Should you fail to have the approvals in place do not contact the landlord without checking with your conveyancer first.

Some Stilton leases require Landlord’s consent to the sale and approval of the buyers. 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 able to meet 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 service charge figures so that they can pass this information on to the buyers or their solicitors.

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 reluctant to purchase a property where a dispute is unresolved. You will have to accept that you will have to pay any arrears of service charge or settle the dispute prior to completion of the sale. 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 buyers, but it is clearly preferable to present the dispute as over as opposed to unsettled.

You may think that you are aware of the number of years remaining on your lease but it would be wise to double-check via your conveyancers. A buyer’s lawyer will not be happy to advise their client to where the lease term is under 80 years. It is therefore important at an early stage that you consider 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.

If all goes to plan we aim to complete the disposal of our £375000 maisonette in Stilton in 5 days. The management company has quoted £300 for Certificate of Compliance, insurance certificate and 3 years service charge statements. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge exorbitant fees for a leasehold conveyance in Stilton?

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

• Completing conveyancing due diligence questions
• Where consent is required before sale in Stilton
• 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 Stilton leasehold property is £350. For Stilton 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 supply the information.

I inherited a 1 bedroom flat in Stilton, conveyancing formalities finalised 2012. Can you let me have an estimated range of the fair premium for a lease extension? Corresponding properties in Stilton with an extended lease are worth £248,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £60 per annum. The lease terminates on 21st October 2080

With only 55 years left to run we estimate the premium for your lease extension to be between £34,200 and £39,600 as well as costs.

The figure above a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we cannot give you a more accurate figure without more comprehensive investigations. You should not use this information in tribunal or court proceedings. There are no doubt additional issues that need to be considered and clearly you want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. You should not move forward placing reliance on this information without first seeking the advice of a professional.

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Lease Extensions in Stilton