I only have 62 years remaining on my lease in West Thurrock. I now want to get lease extension but my freeholder is can not be found. What are my options?

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 Court. You will be obliged to prove that you have made all reasonable attempts to find the lessor. For most situations an enquiry agent would be helpful to conduct investigations and prepare an expert document which can be accepted by the court as evidence that the freeholder is indeed missing. It is wise to seek advice from a conveyancer in relation to proving the landlord’s disappearance and the vesting order request to the County Court covering West Thurrock.

Back In 2005, I bought a leasehold flat in West Thurrock. Conveyancing and Yorkshire Building Society mortgage organised. I have received a letter from someone saying they have taken over the reversionary interest in the property. It included a demand for arrears of ground rent dating back to 1993. The conveyancing solicitor in West Thurrock who previously acted has now retired.Any advice?

First contact the Land Registry to make sure that the individual claiming to own the freehold is indeed the new freeholder. There is no need to incur the fees of a West Thurrock conveyancing firm to do this as it can be done on-line for £3. You should note that regardless, even if this is the legitimate freeholder, under the Limitation Act 1980 no more than 6 years of rent can be collected.

I work for a long established estate agent office in West Thurrock where we have experienced a number of flat sales derailed due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given contradictory information from local West Thurrock conveyancing solicitors. Can you shed some light as to whether the seller of a flat can initiate the lease extension process for the buyer?

As long as the seller has owned the lease 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. 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 before, or at the same time as completion of the disposal of the property.

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 purchaser.

If all goes to plan we aim to complete our sale of a £200000 flat in West Thurrock in just under a week. The landlords agents has quoted £360 for Certificate of Compliance, building insurance schedule and previous years service charge statements. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge an administration fee for a leasehold conveyance in West Thurrock?

For most leasehold sales in West Thurrock 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 pre-exchange questions
• Where consent is required before sale in West Thurrock
• Supplying insurance information
• Deeds of covenant upon sale
• Registering of the assignment of the change of lessee after a sale

Your conveyancer will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for West Thurrock leasehold property is £350. For West Thurrock 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 obliged to supply the information.

Having spent months of dialogue we cannot agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in West Thurrock. Can we issue an application to the Residential Property Tribunal Service?

Where there is a absentee landlord or where there is disagreement about what the lease extension should cost, under the relevant statutes it is possible to make an application to the LVT to arrive at the amount due.

An example of a Lease Extension decision for a West Thurrock flat is Various @ Colombus Square in January 2012. the Tribunal calculated the premiums to be paid for new leases for each of the flats in Mariners Walk to be £3822 and the premium to be paid for the new lease of 2 Knights Court to be £4439. This case was in relation to 13 flats. The unexpired lease term was 76 years.

Are there common defects that you encounter in leases for West Thurrock properties?

Leasehold conveyancing in West Thurrock is not unique. Most leases is drafted differently and drafting errors can result in certain provisions are missing. The following missing provisions could result in a defective lease:

• A provision to repair to or maintain parts of the premises
• Insurance obligations
• A provision for the recovery of money spent for the benefit of another party.
• Service charge per centages that don't add up correctly leaving a shortfall

A defective lease will likely cause issues when trying to sell a property as they can affect a potential buyer’s ability to obtain a mortgage. Birmingham Midshires, Chelsea Building Society, and Nottingham Building Society all have express conveyancing instructions when it comes to what is expected in a lease. If a mortgage lender believes that the lease is defective they may refuse to grant the mortgage, forcing the purchaser to withdraw.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in West Thurrock