Lease extension - no response from freeholder

Better_Days

A family member has just rung me who is in a predicament.

He has a leasehold house that he wants to sell but there is only 62 years remaining. His solicitor has tried to contact the freeholder/LL to extend the lease - Starville Properties Ltd (since early November 2013) but has had no response. My relative has tried to ring Starville but was fobbed off.

Looking up Starville there appears to be one director who is 81 and I do wonder if the company is in financial difficulties given this
http://companycheck.co.uk/company/05854543
and this
http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/investigations/2013/03/charity-lends-75m-to-prop-up-f.html

Looking at the information on the Leaseholders Advisory Service website it looks as if the action to be taken will depend on whether or not the company is in receivership.
http://www.lease-advice.org/publications/documents/document.asp?item=8#competent

Absent Landlords

If, after all reasonable efforts, the landlord cannot be found, this should not prove an obstacle to application for a new lease; the issue can be resolved in other ways.

• If the landlord is a company in receivership, then the Tenant's Notice may be served on the Receiver; similarly, if the owner is an individual who is bankrupt the Notice may be served on the Trustee in Bankruptcy. Both the Receiver and the Trustee are acting as landlord for the time being and are equally bound by the 1993 Act to respond, as landlord, in the service of a Counter-Notice and grant of the new lease.
• If the landlord just cannot be found then the leaseholders' Notice cannot be served. In this case the leaseholder may make application to the county court for a Vesting Order. If the court is satisfied as to the leaseholder's eligibility for a new lease then it will, in effect, grant the lease to the leaseholder in the landlord's absence. The court will usually refer the case to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal for determination of the premium.

Would you say this also applies if the freeholder/landlord simply doesn't respond to correspondence?

I would be grateful if you could advise if I have understood the situation correctly. I have advised my relative to ring the LAS tomorrow, but is there anywhere else he can go for advice to sort this out? His solicitor is content to send chasing letters to the freeholder/LL which is costing my relative money and not getting him anywhere.

Also he needs to complete the sale by August 2014 for financial reasons - is this realistic in the circumstances described above?