I only have Sixty One years remaining on my lease in Stotfold. I now wish to get lease extension but my freeholder is can not be found. What should I do?

If you qualify, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can submit an application to the County Court for for permission 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 done all that could be expected to track down the lessor. On the whole a specialist would be useful to conduct investigations and to produce a report which can be used as evidence that the freeholder can not be located. It is advisable to get professional help from a solicitor both on investigating the landlord’s absence and the vesting order request to the County Court covering Stotfold.

Last month I purchased a leasehold flat in Stotfold. Am I liable to pay service charges for periods before my ownership?

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. However, 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 ensure 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).

I work for a reputable estate agent office in Stotfold where we see a few leasehold sales jeopardised due to short leases. I have been given conflicting advice from local Stotfold conveyancing firms. Could you shed some light as to whether the vendor of a flat can start the lease extension process for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

As long as the seller has been the owner 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. This means that the proposed purchaser need not have 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 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.

Do you have any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Stotfold with the intention of speeding up the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Stotfold can be bypassed where you appoint lawyers as soon as your agents start marketing the property and ask them to collate the leasehold documentation which will be required by the buyers conveyancers.
• Many landlords or managing agents in Stotfold charge for supplying management packs for a leasehold premises. You or your lawyers should enquire as to the fee that they propose to charge. The management pack can be applied for on or before finding a buyer, thus reducing delays. The typical amount of time it takes to obtain the necessary information is three weeks. It is the most usual reason for frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Stotfold.

If all goes to plan we aim to complete the disposal of our £375000 maisonette in Stotfold next Tuesday . The managing agents has quoted £384 for Certificate of Compliance, building insurance schedule and previous years service charge statements. Is the landlord entitled to charge an administration fee for a leasehold conveyance in Stotfold?

Stotfold conveyancing on leasehold maisonettes more often than not necessitates the buyer’s lawyer sending questions for the landlord to answer. Although the landlord is under no legal obligation to address these enquiries most will be willing to do so. They are entitled charge a reasonable administration fee for answering enquiries or supplying documentation. There is no upper cap for such fees. The average fee for the paperwork that you are referring to is over three hundred pounds, in some cases it is above £800. The management information fee demanded by the landlord must be sent together with a synopsis of entitlements and obligations in respect of administration charges, without which the invoice is technically not due. In reality you have no choice but to pay whatever is requested of you should you wish to sell the property.

I own a split level flat in Stotfold, conveyancing having been completed in 2005. How much will my lease extension cost? Similar properties in Stotfold with over 90 years remaining are worth £167,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £60 invoiced annually. The lease ends on 21st October 2097

With just 72 years remaining on your lease we estimate the price of your lease extension to be between £9,500 and £11,000 plus legals.

The suggested premium range above a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we cannot give you the actual costs without more detailed due diligence. You should not use this information in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There are no doubt additional concerns that need to be taken into account and you obviously should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. You should not move forward based on this information before getting professional advice.

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Lease Extensions in Stotfold