I have recently realised that I have 62 years unexpired on my flat in Wallasey. I now wish to extend my lease but my landlord is can not be found. What are my options?

On the basis that 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 lengthened by the Court. However, you will be required to demonstrate that you have done all that could be expected to track down the landlord. On the whole a specialist should be useful to conduct investigations and to produce an expert document to be used as evidence that the landlord can not be located. It is wise to seek advice from a conveyancer in relation to investigating the landlord’s absence and the application to the County Court overseeing Wallasey.

I have just appointed agents to market my ground floor apartment in Wallasey.Conveyancing has not commenced but I have just had a half-yearly maintenance charge invoice – Do I pay up?

Your conveyancing lawyer is likely to suggest that you should clear 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 attracted to a couple of apartments in Wallasey which have approximately 50 years left on the leases. Do I need to be concerned?

A lease is a legal document that entitles you to use the property for a period of time. As the lease shortens the value of the lease reduces and it becomes more expensive to acquire a lease extension. For this reason it is generally wise to extend the lease term. Sometimes it is difficult to sell a property with a short lease as mortgage lenders may be unwilling to lend money on such properties. Lease enfranchisement can be a difficult process. We recommend you seek professional assistance from a conveyancer and surveyor with experience in this field

I am a negotiator for a reputable estate agent office in Wallasey where we have experienced a few flat sales put at risk due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have received contradictory information from local Wallasey conveyancing firms. Can you shed some light as to whether the owner of a flat can initiate the lease extension formalities for the buyer?

As long as the seller has been the owner for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to commence the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. The benefit of this is that the proposed purchaser can avoid having 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.

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 advice for leasehold conveyancing in Wallasey from the point of view of speeding up the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Wallasey can be avoided where you get in touch 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’ solicitors.
• If you have carried out any alterations to the residence would they have required Landlord’s approval? Have you, for example installed wooden flooring? Most leases in Wallasey state that internal structural changes or addition of wooden flooring calls for a licence from the Landlord acquiescing to such changes. If you fail to have the paperwork to hand do not communicate with the landlord without checking with your conveyancer in advance.
• A minority of Wallasey leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this applies to your lease, you should place the estate agents on notice to make sure that the purchasers put in hand financial (bank) and professional references. The bank reference should make it clear that the buyer is financially capable of paying the yearly 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 lawyers.
• If there is a history of conflict with your landlord or managing agents it is essential that these are resolved prior to the flat being marketed. The purchasers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a flat where a dispute is unsettled. You will have to accept that you will have to pay any arrears of service charge or resolve the dispute prior to the buyers completing the purchase. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled ahead of the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You will still have to reveal particulars of the dispute to the buyers, but it is clearly preferable to present the dispute as historic rather than unresolved.
• If you are supposed to have a share in the freehold, you should make sure that you hold the original share certificate. Obtaining a replacement share certificate can be a lengthy formality and slows down many a Wallasey home move. Where a reissued share certificate is necessary, do contact the company officers or managing agents (where relevant) for this as soon as possible.

I invested in buying a ground floor flat in Wallasey, conveyancing was carried out in 2007. Can you work out an approximate cost of a lease extension? Similar flats in Wallasey with an extended lease are worth £206,000. The ground rent is £60 invoiced annually. The lease expires on 21st October 2076

You have 50 years left to run we estimate the price of your lease extension to range between £32,300 and £37,400 as well as professional fees.

The figure that we have given is a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we are not able to supply a more accurate figure in the absence of comprehensive investigations. You should not use the figures in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There are no doubt additional issues that need to be considered and clearly you should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. You should not move forward placing reliance on this information before getting professional advice.