How To Extend Your Property Lease

Extending Your Property Lease

This is up there with one of the most frequently asked questions regarding home ownership- how do I extend a lease on my property? The thing with the duration of a lease is that it can significantly affect the value of a property. Ultimately, the sooner the lease is due to expire, the less the property is worth and the more expensive it can be to extend. Buyers usually look for properties that have a minimum of 95 years; anything below may scare away potential buyers.

Before I continue, I’d just like to apologise for the really horrible “extension” analogy of the ladder imaghen Should I ce. I seriously couldn’t think of anything more suitable :( If anyone has a better suggestion for an image, please let me know. Right, back to business…

A flat with a lease of 100 years is worth roughly the same as a property on a freehold. An apartment on a lease of 60 years, could be valued at approximately 60 percent of the freehold price. Point being, leases are a big deal.

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What is a lease?

A lease simply means the right to occupy a property (usually a flat) for a period, which is generally set at 99 or 125 years. At the end of this time, although you can stay on as a tenant, the freeholder will own your property. For information on freehold and leasehold properties, you can go to my Freehold And Leasehold article.

Can I extend my property lease?

Anyone classed as a “qualified leaseholder” can apply for a lease extension. A qualified leaseholder can be defined by the following:

  • You’ve owned the property for at least 2 years and;
  • The original lease granted was for a term in excess of 21 years

If you meet the above criteria, then you can force the landlord to extend the lease.

When should I consider extending my lease?

The general consensus is that you should consider extending your lease if it’s below 90 years and getting close to 80 years.

There are a couple of reasons for why 80 is the magic number.

Firstly, if a lease has less than 80 years unexpired when you seek to extend it, then you will have to pay what is known as a “marriage value” to the freeholder. Essentially, this is the increase in the value of the property after the lease extension. The Landlord is entitled to 50% of it when a lease with less than 80 years left is extended.

The “marriage value” can be significant, which is why you should consider extending sooner if your lease is below 90 years and getting close to 80 years.

If you want to sell your house, you will need to consider what is regarded as ‘mortgageable’ by most lenders. What I mean by that is, once a lease creeps below 80 years, the number of lenders willing to offer mortgages against the property will decline. It’s near impossible to find a lender that will offer a mortgage if it’s below 60 years. Needless to say, your property will be harder to flog if prospective buyers can’t secure a mortgage against it.

Here’s a quick guide on how you can extend your lease on your leasehold property:

1) Check the details of your lease

The lease runs from the date it was drawn up, not when it was purchased and not the date when the lease was granted. For example, a 99 year lease that was purchased in 2005, 15 years after the lease was actually drawn up (1990), will expire in 2089 – leaving 82 years to run.

2) Check Eligibility

You can only extend a lease for a property that you have owned for at least 2 years; you have a right to extend your lease for an additional 90 years at a peppercorn (zero) ground rent. It doesn’t matter if you haven’t been in occupation. The original lease needs to be long (over 21 years) and it should be residential, as opposed to commercial use.

The law is that you cannot compel a lease extension until you have owned the property for 2 years but that doesn’t stop the freeholder agreeing to give you one in the meantime – but if the landlord is canny (or an ass, depends which way you look at it), he/she will ask a bit more to reflect the fact that you do not have a right to require it!

However, there are exceptions. You can’t force the freeholder to extend a lease if:

  • The majority of the leaseholders have applied to obtain the freehold
  • Your lease has already ended
  • You have sublet your home on a lease of at least 21 years
  • The lease was originally granted for less than 21 years
  • The freeholder is a charitable housing trust, the National Trust, the Crown (although they may agree), or the property is in a cathedral precinct
  • If your freeholder wants to demolish or redevelop the property (in which case you would be entitled to compensation).

3) Contact a Specialist Solicitor

After ensuring that you are eligible for getting an extension, you should contact a solicitor that specialises in property law/leases.

A solicitor will handle all the legal documentations for extending your lease. They will start the process by serving an Initial Notice on the landlord, which will offer a premium for the lease extension. Some of the stages in the process of extending a lease have strict time limits.

I can’t emphasise enough on how important it is to use a solicitor that specialises in property law and leases, and not a general practitioner.

4) Valuation of lease extension

Firstly, a valuer, usually a chartered surveyor, is needed to put a value on the lease extension. I say “needed” because it would be extremely unwise not to have a valuer specialising in this field. He/she will use the valuation formula in the Leasehold Reform Housing and Urban Development Act 1993, as amended. Contact the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors for a list of local surveyors who specialise in lease extensions. It’s best to get a quote in writing first.

Most surveyors will charge a fixed fee to prepare the report. This fee should cover the initial inspection of the property, reading the lease and making all the calculations.

There are extra charges if the surveyor is asked to negotiate with the landlord or their agent or for any further work required if the valuation cannot be agreed.

5) Dealing with the freeholder

The owner of the freehold will be given a minimum of two months in which to respond to an offer and if he/she does not, then action can be taken by applying to the County Court for an order that the lease extension be granted on the same terms set out in the initial notice.

Usually the Counter Notice is served in time and a period of negotiation follows between the parties or their respective surveyors.

You should also remember that whilst the law will ultimately be on your side when extending a lease, if a freeholder wants to be difficult he/she can drag the whole process out for ages. The freeholder can still suggest a high figure on the basis that it will take you quite a bit of time and money to challenge it.

6) Valuation Problems

If an agreement is not made on the valuation then the deal could end up in the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal. However, that is quite unusual.

An application to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal must be made by the flat owner (i.e. the lessee) no later than six months from receipt of a valid counter notice, failing which, if the premium cannot be agreed within the six month window, the initial notice is deemed withdrawn. This means that the lessee will have to pay the landlord’s reasonable legal and surveyor’s fees in addition to his/her own costs and wait for a further 12 months before being able to make a fresh claim under the Act.

This will be costly for the lessee, especially if waiting a year results in the lease term dropping below 80 years! If the applicant meets the criteria by law the freeholder cannot prevent extension of the lease.

Once the Initial Notice is served on the freeholder, then the applicant will be responsible for the reasonable valuation and conveyancing costs. The Notice is also important in setting the valuation date.

7) Further Entitlements

Under the Act the applicant is entitled to a further 90 years on your lease with no ground rent payable on the original term or extension – that is incorporated within the cost of extending. However, there will still be a service charge under the terms of the lease.

8) How much will it cost to extend the lease?

How much the extension is worth and calculating how much you will have to pay is difficult to estimate accurately. The value consists of three main amounts. The first two are to compensate the landlord, for loss of ground rent during the rest of the existing term of the lease, and for not receiving possession of the property at the end of the term.

Thirdly, as already mentioned, where the lease has less than 80 years to go, there is what’s known as a ‘marriage value’, which is arrived at by deducting the value of the property before the extension from the value afterwards, plus the value of the landlord’s interest.

The Leasehold Advisory Service gives an example of a flat with a 68 year unexpired lease, on a ground rent of £50 pa, with a current value of £150k, and an improved value of £165k. An extension of 90 years is likely to cost £8,250. But the same property, on a lease with only 35 years to run, could set you back a whopping £55,368. However, if the current lease is 95 years (and, therefore, attracts no ‘marriage value’) the cost of an extension would be only around £734.

It’s important to note that the leaseholder is liable for both parties’ legal and valuation costs, unless the matter ends up at the Leasehold Advisory Service, who may apportion the costs differently.

Although it may be an expensive business, remember that you are adding value to your property, and, in addition, you will no longer have to pay ground rent.

9) How long does the process take?

Subject to how efficient you are, plus your freeholder, his solicitor, your solicitor and your surveyor, this whole process could take 3-12 months, unless of course it lands up in court because you cannot agree values. However, there are legal timelines in place to prevent the process from dragging on.

Please note

This is just a rough guideline to the process of extending a lease; each case may vary depending on individual circumstances. On that note, Happy lease extending, people…

99 Join the Conversation...

Showing 49 - 99 comments (out of 99)
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Corrine 16th June, 2011 @ 20:31

The above post was for prices in the North of England. I imagine that London prices for solicitors etc may be a lot higher. I was also advised to make sure you get someone who has experience in dealing with lease extensions as it can become quite tricky sometimes.

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Jackie 17th July, 2011 @ 10:50

Don't trust solicitors as they NEVER explain all the costs.
I am going through the process of a lease extension and no-one told me that as well as the freeholder's valuation fees I would have to pay their solicitor to draw up a new lease. This has been set at £600 + VAT. Is that reasonable? Also - will there be land registry fees to pay as well?

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Shah 25th August, 2011 @ 05:40

Hi,
I have few questions regarding this topic. I am not a resident of UK, however my father and his brother own a flat in London. 2 of their unmarried elderly sisters live in it.
My father and uncle are named as proprietors in Register Of Title document. The edition date on it is 28.03.2006.
Property Register section dates 12.01.2006 as "lessor's title is registerd", Names of Parties involved and "Term : 125 years from 24 June 2005". All these particulars indicate that the flat was leased in 2005. The flat has been in our possession since early 1990's. My father expired in 1996.
My questions are that
1> how can it have been leased in 2005 with my father's name?
2> in year 2002 i remember my uncle asking me to give him our father's death certificate and succession and heirship certificates but then later he only took a utility bill which was still being issued in my late father's name in our native country. SO can he have got property leased without my father being present at that time?
3>the present lease is joint proprietors (meaning it cannot get transfered to surviving heirs) , however i specifically remmeber my uncles telling me that my father's share needs to be transfered in his wife and kids names. Can he have got the new lease with different type of propritorship?

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sarah 30th August, 2011 @ 08:55

Hi,
i wondered if anyone can shed some light on my particular case & whether i should renew my lease now or wait a few years thus building up some funds from the flats income....

1. My lease was issued in May 1992, worryingly SOLICITORS can't agree as to whether i have 80 or 79 years LEFT, can someone please give me an exact answer?

2. The Freehold is owned by a housing association and although i pay a service charge i DO NOT pay a ground rent, therefore i don't think the "peppercorn rent" scenario applies to me, so in turn does "marriage Value" still apply?

3. taking into consideration the lack of peppercorn rent, if i do have 80 years left, am i still better off renewing now before it goes down to 79 in May?

4. If i have 79 years left, will it make much difference in cost if i leave it until i have say 77 or 76 years left?

I would appreciate any advice, i'm finding it very difficult to get any straight answers from any solicitors & i'm very reluctant to part with any money for surveys until i am sure the solicitor i am instructing knows what they are doing, after all i can't have 79 & 80 years left!

Please help!

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deborah wilson 22nd November, 2011 @ 22:49

What do i need to look for in the surveyors report regarding the lease extension. How do i know if I've got my money's worth?

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Giles 28th December, 2011 @ 17:58

Just seen a studio flat with 11 years lease.
Suicidal move?
Your comments are appreciated.

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Jeremy 28th December, 2011 @ 21:33

Hello Giles,

It depends. The most important factor is the asking price. The rather opaque rules on marriage value, which kick in when the flat's got under 80 years remaining on the lease effectively give the freeholder a share of the value of the flat. The forumla is very complex, but use a rule of thumb of them owning 69/80ths and you owning 11/80ths. Or about 12.5% of the market value of an equivelent flat with a long lease.

So my rule of thumb would say if the flat is on offer for around 12% of normal market value then I might be interested. I'd have two choices:
1 - Rent it out for twelve years and then say goodbye to it. Will you recoup your investment? Many leases I've seen have special clauses applying to the final seven years of the lease. You're obligated to ensure you hand the flat back in a fully decorated and maintained condition. And you may find it hard to recoup the cost of this work back from future rental earnings.
2 - Use Leasehold Enfranchisement to get the lease extended. This won't be cheap. You'll pay the freeholder for their value in your lease and solicitors and surveyors costs for yor AND the freeholder. And you might need to pay their costs to attend a Freehold Valuation Tribunal. In fact with 88% of the market value at stake, I'm pretty sure they'd drag you to the tribunal.

Hope this helps.

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Giles 28th December, 2011 @ 22:09

Thanks for this.
In this instance, I think it's safer to buy land without planning permission !

Kind regards

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tim murry 26th March, 2012 @ 13:55

looked at flat with only 53 year lease how much would it cost to exstend lease to 125 years can someone help regards tim

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Jeremy 28th March, 2012 @ 20:51

Hello Tim,

It depends on a number of things, one thing in particular being: Is the flat is in central London? But pencil in 1/6th of the full market value of the flat. If the figures stand up as an investment, come back and I'll see if I can help anymore.

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Tom 6th April, 2012 @ 07:37

@Katong. Fortunatelly this discussion is about lease extension not spelling.
@Tim. You need to provide more details. Where is the flat, how much it cost, what is the ground rent etc... No one can really tell you exacly how much the extension would cost but we may be able to give you a rough idea how much that shoule be.

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greg 12th April, 2012 @ 22:04

hi,my mum(79)has a house which turns out to have only 8-9 years left on the lease,she has lived at the house since 1964-5 she pays g/rent of £13 p/year ,i know nothing about the workings of this.
can she extend the lease or buy the free hold,what sort of costings would there be?
any info greatly recieved.i:e who to see and what to ask.

greg

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Jeremy 17th April, 2012 @ 00:44

Hello Greg,

She can certainly extend her lease. I don't see many with so few years left on it. I think it would probably cost something around 90% of the selling price of a comparable flat with an 80-plus years remaining lease.

Sorry, that's probably not what you wanted to hear!

WWW.lease.org used to have a list of chartered surveyors by region who you could ring up for a more informed conversation.

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greg 1st May, 2012 @ 18:16

jeremy,many thanks for your reply,blimey if thats the case that would put it in the £300-£400 thousand pound bracket.something tells me an 80 year old woman MIGHT not be able to get a mortgage LOL.

oh well as said she has 8 years left,just seems a shame that the partys years back never got this sorted,when it was going cheap.

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nicola 31st May, 2012 @ 20:25

hi my gran left me and my antie her house when she passed away it is lease hold with 48 years left on the lease my gran was payin 3000 a year ground rent i ask them how much it was to buy they want 65000 and 5000 pounds costs i cant get a mortgage for that much but want to live in my grans house does this sound like about right i was goin to pay my antie off and then try to buy the lease later this is the only way i can get on propety ladder my family tell me to leave it but we will come away with nothin help x

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Tom 20th July, 2012 @ 13:18

Nicola... That' depending on how much this house will be worth after extension. Is it house of flat. ??? as it is unlikely house would be on a lease. Maybe just put in on auction with reserve and use the money for deposit to get something else. Maybe it''s worthy to get legal support and have the quote checked. It needs to be ligitimate nowadays.

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Costel 21st August, 2012 @ 21:59

Hello
I want to buy I maseonette in Northolt in NW of London the property have a lease of 24 years,the price it 90000k in the aria the same property it 155000k worth,can same one tell me please how much will cost me to renew the lease to a 100 years.

Thank you very much

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Jeremy 21st August, 2012 @ 23:35

Hello Costel,

I can't tell you a definate figure, but I have this gut feeling that £90k is way over the odds if the "long lease" equivelent flat is going at £155k. Ring up your local RICS member. They should give you a free ten minute chat to tell you if the asking price is a joke or not.

Hope this helps.

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MBH 10th March, 2013 @ 13:48

hi there
I am intent purchases a flat which has 95 years Lease remaining i am just wondering if i wan to get the full 125 years What DI I HAVE to Do?

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Jeremy 10th March, 2013 @ 15:18

Hello MBH,

There is no such thing as a "full" 125 years. Leases can be for any period. If you want to extend your lease, you have two chices:
- Negotiate directly with your freeholder;
- Use a solicitor to commence "right to extend" legal process.

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Livvyh 18th March, 2013 @ 20:09

Hello, I currently live in a flat that has 66 years remaining on the lease. The value of the flat is roughly £90,000. I contacted the landlord about extending the lease as I am thinking about moving and was quoted £9000. After speaking to another resident in the same block, I discovered that he had been quoted £2000 even though he lives in same value flat with same lease length. Have I got any legal rights to dispute my offer?
Thanks for any help you can give x

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Benji 18th March, 2013 @ 20:55

Livvyh,
If your ground rent is about £100 pa then £9000 is about right using this calculator;

http://www.lease-advice.org/calculator/

So if the other resident is paying the same ground rent and everything else is the same, they have a bargain. You could use this as a basis for haggling.

As for your legal rights, read through this;

http://www.lease-advice.org/

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Alisha 16th April, 2013 @ 11:13

Hello,looked at flat with only 54 year lease left. Asking price is 155K with ground rent 127 per year. Flats of such type usually cost 200K with good lease period left. Is spending 155K on such property advisable? How much would it cost to extend lease to 90 years? Can someone help? I was told I cannot contact freeholder now and its upto freeholder's discretion after 2 years of purchase when I actually request for lease extension. Appreciate your advise. Rgds Alisha

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ben 18th April, 2013 @ 20:33

Hi I have a studio flat in sutton lease has 72 years left on it an want to extend it to 99 years ground rent 70pound how muchdo u think it will cost to renew I was thinking bout 4 thousand

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Kerry 8th May, 2013 @ 16:06

Hi I hope someone can help me. We bough or flat 8 years ago for £98,000 and now I want to sell its a ground floor flat with two bedrooms and its been valued between £90.000 and £99,000 and we prob wont even get that anyways I have just asked if I can extend the lease hold as it only has 53 years left on lease hold and I have been giving the price of £10,518.30 and well I think this is just crazy and now in going to ask how much it's is to buy the lease hold I was just wondering can they just ask u for any amount as I think this is a lot of money to be asking for as our ground rent is only £20 a year. Thanks Kerry

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rojer 26th September, 2013 @ 21:38

Hello I need help I am buying commercial property lease and the lease has only two and half years left and the lease is open lease kindly tell is worth buying it after the two and half lease can i get new lease or what will happen kindly help me

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Alison 10th October, 2013 @ 11:53

Hi, I need advice please. I have been trying to sell my maisonette with 71 years left on the lease. Potential buyers want to know what the cost to extend the lease will be before proceeding with any purchase. However, the landlord won't negotiate on a lease renewal and won't renew an individual lease until the amenity land lease is renewed first. The problem is that there is no record of an amenity land lease at the land registry. He has told the management company solicitors that unless the costs to renew the amenity land lease are released he will just allow the individual leases to run down. Is he allowed to do this. If I serve a notice on him for a lease renewal is he obliged to renew my lease regardless of the amenity land lease situation?

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Tim Baskett 23rd October, 2013 @ 11:37

Hi,

I own a flat in block of 4 to which the flat owners apparently own a share each in the freehold.

My lease has about 78 years remaining and I wanted to extend as in the summer I want to sell and wanted to make the flat as appealing as possible.

In my efforts to extend the 3 other owners weren't interested, can I do this alone and is there any way I can double check that I do own part of freehold. I have a share certificate and when I bought the flat the solicitor wasn't great hence my concern.

Any help or advice would be great.

Thanks,
Tim

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Phil 21st February, 2014 @ 10:07

Thanks for the information! You know, purchasing a property with a leasehold contract requires careful examination of the terms. As they differ greatly. As a rule, buyers of a leasehold property search for properties that have a minimum of 95 years. But verifying how much you will pay for a lease extension is rather difficult to estimate. I know that in general, the process takes between three up to twelve months depending on the efficiency of your solicitors and some other advisors.

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Lee 21st March, 2014 @ 15:59

New to this - so thanks for taking the time to review.
Just had property valued by estate agent at £175k, was going to sell, until I found out lease only has 56 years left!
Am really struggling as to what if anything I can do, as I can't afford to renew lease, and feel like I'm pretty much stuck there..
Are there any options at all here?

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deena 3rd April, 2014 @ 21:03

Help! my solicitors did a dirty and refuses to look at my draft lease that was issued by my landlors solicitors. Mr ajay pau in kingsbury let me down and did a dirty last minute brfore the deadline on completing the draft lease. will the new draft be any different form old? what do i have to fill in this new lease?
can i do it myself.,
DO NOT TRUST this Ajay pau. he purposly let me down last minute so i have no one to help me.Is it easy to fil in draft lease issued?

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Vitto 4th April, 2014 @ 22:10

Hi I'm about to buy a flat which has 16 years left to the lease,they are other flats in the same building which their leases expires in 2120,I wanted to know if I can extend the lease by been in the same building?and how much would it cost?
Flat value 30.000
Thank you

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Lynsey 4th May, 2014 @ 18:59

Hi. I'm looking at buying a lower ground floor flat in Herne Bay. The asking price is £105k. The ground rent is £50 annually, and the service charge is £20 a month, so £240 annually. The lease runs 99 years from 1990, so has 75 years remaining. Would it be reasonable to, should I decide to purchase the property, ask the vendor to extend the lease as a condition of my purchase?

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tony 13th May, 2014 @ 07:50

Hi, I own a ground floor flat but only lease hold which is currently at 71 years what is best way to increase this?. We have recently found out that that the freeholder who lives in flat above has sold his flat and wants to offer us the free hold how would this benefit me?

Kind Regards Tony

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Sandra 21st November, 2014 @ 08:48

My Uncle has just passed away he had 17 years left on the lease of a 1930 semi detached house. The house is in a terrible condition no heating and needs new roof. The value is in good condition would be about £180000. Aprox how much would it cost to buy the freehold and does the leaseholder have any responsibility for the repairs. We are at a loss of what to do

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Malcolm Stretten 23rd January, 2015 @ 20:06

I am so incensed by the whole concept of Leasehold - I believe that Britain is the only country where it exists. As far as I am concerned it is a giant property fraud dreamt up by the landed gentry. Like you I run a blog and I have very recently written an item on it about this issue. The 1993 Act went a long way to redress the balance between freeholders and leaseholders but not far enough. I'd like to see it made illegal in future to sell any property with less than a 999 year lease. Any - keep up the good work.

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Emily 7th February, 2015 @ 14:21

Hi, Does anyone know if one can choose the years of lease extension, say if one finds it too expensive to extend a currently very short lease to 90 years, can one request to extend it for 30 years?

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Ebs 8th February, 2015 @ 15:37

Hi

I would like to extend the lease on my flat which has 73 years remaining purchased at £115000 in Aug 2005 'estimated' value now £145000. Ground rent is £80 pa. I have used the calculator on lease advice service to get a rough estimate on costs. Estimate is currently between £6000-7000!! There are 5 flats in total in my block, at least 3 of us would like to extend our leases (all have similar 73 years remaining). Is there a way to do this jointly and lower the costs of each extension ? Alternatively could we purchase the freeholder as the managing agents are quite frankly useless!

Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I want to start the process as soon as possible, in the most cost effective way.

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Debbie Creighton 24th February, 2015 @ 08:24

Hi

I need some advice we live in a property and have a share of the freehold, it seems all the other neighbours (9) had the lease increase done before they moved in the propertys were built in 1964 and given a 99 year lease, all our neighbours now have 999, yet we are still on the original lease off 99 so not much remaining, how do we increase out lease if we are the freeholders and how much would it cost, we are valued at 270.
Many Thanks

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Carole 14th July, 2015 @ 07:19

Hi
I was left a flat along with my siblings when my mum passed away.I have bought them out of their share.Does the two years ownership still apply when you have been willed a property when wanting to extend a lease and is it my right to extend to 99 years + and stay at peppercorn rent

Thankyou

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Lesley Anne 19th July, 2015 @ 17:14

I own a property in Westminster which is rented to tenants. There are 72 years on the lease remaining. There is a good chance that the block will be demolished in the coming years (as many others nearby). My options are to sell now and pay a hefty CGT bill or keep the flat on and renew the lease.
BUT is it worth renewing the lease if the block is due to be demolished (possibly/likely with a CPO placed on it). If this happens I should be offered the full valuation of the flat at that time (plus inconvenience costs).
Advice needed asap, please! Many thanks.

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K.K. 25th September, 2015 @ 22:42

Hi. We are buying house which has 76years lease. My husband said that after we lhave lived for 2 years later, we are going to extend lease.I am worried how much does it cost more to extend lease.

Should we buy this house or not?

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Charlotte 26th September, 2015 @ 04:48

I'm the author of post 43 back in 2011 where in the process of buying my flat I found out there was only 75 years left on the lease so thought I'd update you with the outcome. The then owner's solicitors contacted the freeholder and they offered to extend it by 25 years for 2k. This was significantly less than I was expecting. I don't understand the ins and outs of it but apparently it's because it was only for a short extension whilst if you extend it to the max, you have to go down the marriage value route and it effects the freeholder's rights to the property. Like I said I don't fully understand it but it worked out well for me, the previous owner extended it and we split the cost. My advice would be to get any current owners to try and do the same thing.

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Ss4lee 26th September, 2015 @ 06:19

There are 2 legal ways to get the lease extended. One is to go to the freeholder and ask (this is a legal but "unofficial" way) like Charlotte above. We did this on a similar property we bought which had a 69 year lease. However the freeholder seemed greedy as we knew that if we took the "official" route,(and the lease extension calculators are pretty accurate and can be found on Google) and the freeholder was pretty much offering 30 years for the same cost as 99 years (u always get 99 years on an "official" extension as this is where the freeholder is MADE to extend). The first thing to go is go on to the lease extension calculator, put in the cost of the property, date lease expires etc and it should give and estimate..... Unless it's in central London, this should be the maximum u pay for the lease, so the freeholders offer should always be a better offer, not a worse one. U will always be responsible for legal costs (often £1250+ vat, survey fees etc, so u need to add a few £k's which ever route u decide). Overall we decided to buy and wait 2 years to do it the "official" way. FYI: terminology explanation; u will read "unofficial" as "outside the act", and official as "inside the act", initially I found these terms confusing so prefer to refer to them as unofficial or not. Hope this helps.

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lenny 9th April, 2016 @ 07:28

I have a flat with 82 years remaining i would like to extend however
the freehold is owned 50% by a charity (not a housing charity) and 50% by a trust fund
the flat is above two shops which both have second floors meaning the commercial space
in the building is greater than 25%.
is there anything I can do?

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Pamela 30th March, 2017 @ 09:37

can a freeholder refuse to extend my lease until the lease is down to 80 years? This is what my landlord has just told me, he has been advised by his solicitor not to do so until this time. Also, he wants to do all the flats at the same time, impossible in my opinion as not everyone wants, or can afford, to extend their lease. help? Nobody tells you about "mariage value' when you buy a flat. Should be illegal not to do so!

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Malcolm Stretten 30th March, 2017 @ 10:06

First, a caveat - I am a landlord and sell landlord insurance and am NOT a solicitor, so check with one first. However I am pretty sure that a freeholder can NOT refuse to extend your lease until it is down to 80 years. This was enshrined in the Leasehold Reform Act. But I think 80 years is a very significant point, because after that point there is no longer a 'formula' that tribunals etc can adopt to determine how much your lease is worth - it is then basically decided by the open market. If this is the case then I can see why the freeholder is seeking to discourage you!

You can get free advice from the Government Leasehold Advisory Service.

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Jack Carr 23rd May, 2017 @ 17:48

I have 86 years left on my flat's 99year lease. I have a purchaser but he will only accept 99 0r 100 year lease how much would it cost me to buy an extension. The flat is worth£195,000

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Sarah 15th January, 2021 @ 15:37

Hi I am in the process of selling my flat which I have had an offer on and all is going ahead but when my landlords were asked how much it would cost me to extend my current lease of 49 years they said it would be £98000 + £1000 costs for administration. Is this a reasonable amount for them to ask for? I would have thought £70000 is nearer the mark? Can you advise if this is legal to pluck a figure out of the air and expect me to accept it?

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Malcolm Stretten 15th January, 2021 @ 15:48

Sarah - this whole business of leaseholders purchasing extra years on their lease from the freeholder is a very difficult business and has been for years. Blame the landed gentry for the leasehold system! However, the government have only just announced major reforms to the leasehold process. I am not sure if it affects your situation but it might:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-reforms-make-it-easier-and-cheaper-for-leaseholders-to-buy-their-homes
Also there is a good free government advisory service, unimaginatively called 'Lease'.

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Josephine Ambrose 5th February, 2021 @ 15:25

Good afternoon
I have through my leasehold adviser submitted a section 42 to extend my lease by 90 years
The freeholders agent replied to this by email with a few minutes to spare before the deadline of two months was up Their counter notice was rejected (section 45) as it was sent on a scrappy piece of paper and was 100% riddled with errors.Another one was submitted a few minutes out of time stating they would not accept my offer and were only prepared to extend the lease by forty years Does this make their counter offer invalid as it would seem they are making an informal counter offer against my formal section 42 offer
My leasehold extension adviser keeps saying that so many things are a grey area. The freeholder is dishonest she bought both the freehold to her flat and mine behind my back so if possible I would rather not deal with her She is in Nigeria however she phoned my adviser and he is sure he was speaking with the freeholder
Any suggestions would be gratefully received
Thank you
J Ambrose

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