My wife and I may need to let out our Warrington garden flat temporarily due to taking a sabbatical. We used a Warrington conveyancing firm in 2002 but they have closed and we did not have the foresight to seek any guidance as to whether the lease permits subletting. How do we find out?

A lease governs relations between the landlord and you the flat owner; specifically, it will say if subletting is not allowed, or permitted but only subject to certain conditions. The accepted inference is that if the lease contains no specific ban or restriction, subletting is permitted. Most leases in Warrington do not contain an absolute prevention of subletting – such a provision would adversely affect the market value the flat. In most cases there is a basic requirement that the owner notifies the freeholder, possibly supplying a copy of the tenancy agreement.

There are only 68 years unexpired on my lease in Warrington. 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 enable the lease to be extended by the Court. However, you will be required to demonstrate that you have used your best endeavours to find the freeholder. In some cases an enquiry agent would be useful to carry out a search and to produce a report which can be used as evidence that the freeholder can not be located. It is wise to seek advice from a conveyancer in relation to devolving into the landlord’s absence and the vesting order request to the County Court overseeing Warrington.

Due to exchange soon on a leasehold property in Warrington. 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 Warrington should include some of the following:

• The physical extent of the property. This will be the apartment itself but may incorporate a loft or cellar if applicable.
• Ground rent - how much and when you need to pay, and also know whether this is subject to change
• Changes to the flat (alterations and additions)
• The landlord’s rights to access the flat you be made aware that your landlord has rights of access and I know how much notice s/he must provide.
• Whether the landlord has obligations to ensure rights of quiet enjoyment over your property and do you know what it means in practice?
• Responsibility for repairing the window frames
• What options are open to you if a neighbour breach a clause of their lease?

Can you provide any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Warrington with the intention of speeding up the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Warrington can be avoided if you appoint lawyers the minute you market your property and request that they start to collate the leasehold information which will be required by the purchasers’ conveyancers.
• In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s permission? In particular have you laid down wooden flooring? Most leases in Warrington state that internal structural changes or addition of wooden flooring calls for a licence issued by the Landlord consenting to such changes. Where you dont have the paperwork to hand you should not communicate with the landlord without contacting your conveyancer first.
• A minority of Warrington leases require Landlord’s consent to the sale and approval of the buyers. If this applies to your lease, you should notify your estate agents to make sure that the purchasers put in hand financial (bank) and professional references. The bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are able to meet 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 service charge figures so that they can pass this information on to the purchasers or their lawyers.
• If you have had conflict with your landlord or managing agents it is essential that these are resolved before the property is put on the market. The purchasers and their solicitors will be warry about purchasing a property where there is a current dispute. You will have to accept that you will have to discharge any arrears of service charge or resolve 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 details of the dispute to the purchasers, but it is better to reveal the dispute as over as opposed to unsettled.
• If you are supposed to have a share in the freehold, you should ensure that you hold the original share document. Organising a re-issued share certificate is often a time consuming process and frustrates many a Warrington home move. Where a reissued share certificate is required, do contact the company director and secretary or managing agents (where relevant) for this as soon as possible.

We expect to complete the disposal of our £ 175000 maisonette in Warrington next week. The freeholder has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Certificate of Compliance, building insurance schedule and 3 years service charge statements. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge exorbitant fees for a flat conveyance in Warrington?

Warrington conveyancing on leasehold flats normally involves the buyer’s lawyer sending enquiries for the landlord to answer. Although the landlord is under no legal obligation to respond to these enquiries the majority will be willing to do so. They are entitled invoice a reasonable charge for responding to questions or supplying documentation. There is no set fee. The average fee for the information that you are referring to is £350, in some situations it exceeds £800. The management information fee demanded by the landlord must be accompanied by a synopsis of rights and obligations in relation to administration fees, without which the charge is not strictly payable. In reality one has little option but to pay whatever is requested of you if you want to sell the property.

I inherited a leasehold flat in Warrington, conveyancing formalities finalised 6 years ago. How much will my lease extension cost? Similar flats in Warrington with an extended lease are worth £167,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £60 yearly. The lease runs out on 21st October 2106

You have 80 years unexpired the likely cost is going to range between £9,500 and £11,000 as well as costs.

The figure above a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we are not able to supply a more accurate figure in the absence of detailed investigations. Do not use this information in tribunal or court proceedings. There are no doubt other concerns that need to be taken into account and clearly you should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Please do not take any other action placing reliance on this information before seeking the advice of a professional.