FAQs

A qualified and experienced valuer will be able to give advice and negotiate between both parties over the required premium.

When you have owned your property for two years you are, in most circumstances, legally allowed to extend your lease by 90 years and to also reduce your ground rent.

If the landlord refuses the lease extension or sets unfavourable terms then you are able to take the matter to tribunal. We are experts at negotiations and are able to prepare and represent you at tribunals to give you the best change of reaching your objective.

It is best to extend your lease when it has more than 80 years left. Costs go up when the lease has less than 80 years left. Extending a short lease also makes it easier to sell your property and gives it a greater value.

The leasehold tenants of a house have a legal right to buy the freehold given in The Leasehold Reform Act, 1967. Subject to qualification.

Enfranchisement is the legal right of a lessee to buy the freehold of their property.

Owning the freehold is most likely to increase the value of your home. The amount of this increase will vary depending on circumstances. We can advise if freehold purchasing is right for your situation.

When purchasing a leasehold flat there are a number of things you need to know.

Firstly how long is the existing lease. While the two-year qualification rule for lessees to have the right to extend their lease under the Leasehold Reform Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 has been removed, it’s still crucial to ensure the lease won't drop below the critical 80-year mark. Waiting until your ownership is registered at the Land Registry is necessary to serve a notice, but delaying this could mean an increase in premium due to the lease duration decreasing and potential rises in property values. Serving a Section 42 Notice fixes the valuation date, preventing further reduction in lease length and locking in the property value as of the notice date. Thus, serving the notice and assigning it to the purchaser upon completion can be beneficial, especially for leases close to or below 80 years.

Other important issues are the ground rent, is it sensible, will it rise quickly or to a high level where mortgage lenders will refuse to lend.

Service charges should also be checked to ensure they are at a level you are happy to pay.

If you would like to find out how we can help with extending the lease please contact us by phone, email or through the website.

To extend a residential lease the lessee must have been the registered owner for a minimum of two years. This means that when purchasing a leasehold flat the new lessee has to wait two years to have their own right to serve a Section 42 Notice under the Leasehold Reform Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 or Leasehold Reform 1967 Act for houses. Vendors who qualified could serve the notice and assign it to the purchaser but that meant a lot more legal fees at what is already an expensive time. Also if the notice was not written or served correctly, and shown to be invalid after the purchase was completed, the new lessee would then have to wait two years by which time the cost of the lease extension would have risen due to the shorter lease and possibly higher property prices. Which may not have been taken into account when the purchase price was agreed.

Once this rule is removed a new lessee can complete on the purchase and then serve their own notice immediately meaning they would have a much better idea of how much it is likely to cost. They would still be advised to have a lease extension valuation done prior to purchase to ensure they are paying the right price for the short lease.