If you are one of many home-owners who live in a leasehold property, it is important to understand the full implications of your lease, including its length.
Leasehold sales contracts are typically a feature of divided residential buildings such as a large, older house now converted into separate flats or a purpose-built apartment block. In recent years some property developers chose also to sell many new houses directly to home buyers on leasehold contracts.
In most cases, residential property is sold with long lease periods of at least 99 years, sometimes significantly more, but it is well worth taking the time to check how many years remain on your current lease – when it does run out, legal ownership of your home will revert to the property freeholder, the underlying owner of the building and the land on which it stands.
The value of your leasehold home is very likely to diminish as the term left on your lease decreases and, if you have less than 80 years remaining on your lease, you may find it increasingly difficult to sell your property as time marches on.
Do I have the right to extend my lease?
Probably, yes.
Most leasehold home-owners have a statutory right to extend their lease. As long as you have owned your property for at least two years and hold a long lease whose term was in excess of 21 years when it was originally granted, you should be legally entitled to extend the lease on your home, which will boost its resale value and give you reassuring security of tenure.
How much will it cost?
You can expect to pay a price for your lease extension, although the amount you are required to pay, the premium, is usually calculated based on a standard formula involving the amount of ground rent you have already paid and the remaining length of your lease.
Enlisting the help of a conveyancing professional to ensure the complex official paperwork is completed on time and accurately at each stage of your application will give you peace of mind and save time in the long-run; procedural errors, missed deadlines or factual omissions can be expensive to correct and could jeopardise the success of your application.
How do I start the process?
We are established residential conveyancing solicitors with full knowledge and experience of all the relevant legal rules, practices and procedures so if you are considering the pros and cons of extending your leasehold term, we are perfectly-placed to help.
Our experts will help you decide whether the time is right for you to extend your lease and, once you have made your decision we can prepare the specialist documentation and conveyancing needed to secure your extension. If necessary, we will take your case to tribunal to ensure your statutory rights prevail – and we will provide clear estimates of our fees and any extra costs in advance, to keep you fully in the picture.
We pride ourselves on providing stress-free high-quality specialist conveyancing services that will serve your best interests efficiently and effectively, achieving your best possible outcome at a reasonable cost and with the minimum of fuss.
For more information on how we can help residential property leaseholders extend the terms of their lease, call us for an informal conversation on 01243 786668, email the property team at info@georgeide.co.uk or contact us directly using the details shown.
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For further information about any of our services or to book a no-obligation consultation, call us on 01243 786668 or email directly at info@georgeide.co.uk.
Client Testimonials
Many thanks again for your work and support on the sale of my flat in Putney – as per my previous experiences on sale/purchasing properties with your help, you give conveyancing lawyers a good name! Very efficient, prompt and pragmatic plus you know what to advise/caution me on without overdoing it. After the dust has settled I will be looking for an investment property to buy so no doubt will be back in touch in due course. Enjoy the rest of the summer and thanks again.
Katherine Marshall
Nicholas Smith
Nick, Maddie and Sally were absolutely brilliant. Very approachable, efficient and worked very hard to get our matter completed very quickly. Will definitely recommend to friends/family. Thank you to all so much again.
Jonathan Kerr Crow
Nicholas Smith
Thank you so much Nicholas for the brilliant service you have given is throughout the selling and buying of our properties. You, and Maddie, have been exceptional.
Mr and Mrs Holder
Nicholas Smith
We want to say a very big thank you to both of you for all your help in our house moves. We have been very impressed with your highly efficient, no fuss approach to the conveyancing. It has made the whole process so much easier for us and we would have no hesitation recommending your services to others.
Best wishes and thank you once again.
Tony &Joanne Heys
Nicholas Smith
Nick was always very quick to respond to any queries and made the whole process a lot less stressful, especially as it was my first property purchase. Guidance documentation was very helpful too. I can’t fault the service.
Teresa Durrant
Nicholas Smith
The speed from offer to completion surprised everyone we spoke to and more than met our deadline to beat the June Stamp Duty deadline. Well done, absolutely delighted.
John Middleditch
Nicholas Smith
Excellent service again – even better than last time. I was particularly impressed and grateful for the very speedy email communications; they were always prompt but also importantly, they were succinct. I was also pleased at the help given in distilling the important considerations and that Nick identified a major issue with the title very early on in the process.
Mike Smith
Nicholas Smith
“Just a very quick, but nonetheless very sincere and heart-felt thanks on behalf of J and myself for your highly professional and sympathetic help in the house sale/purchase saga – you certainly saved our respective sanities on several occasions when your wise words proved to be the right course of action.”
Mr T
Nicholas Smith
Just a note to thank you both very much for your help during the sale of Betty’s apartment. I was pretty stressed about it all, especially after the first sale fell through. But your kindness and efficient follow-up on everything really helped me. I have total confidence in your services and would not hesitate to work with you again. Very best wishes.
Sandy
Nicholas Smith
Thank you for informing C that she has successfully exchanged on Bell Cottage.
Can I personally thank you for your prompt and excellent service. Your turn-around has been exemplary.
As a result we will be arranging power of attorney, and any other legal work in the future, through George Ide’s offices.
RB
Nicholas Smith
Nicholas Smith was highly professional, focused and responsive. He worked to a very tight timetable to
complete the purchase of our house and I would strongly recommend him to prospective clients
Robert & Nathalie Forman
Nicholas Smith
We just wanted to take the time as well to say a personal thanks to the pair of you for your excellent service and support during our move. We had used you before but, like many people, we were tempted to go this time with one of the low cost on line conveyancing quotes we received. Had we done so we are now sure we would have regretted it as we feel that the exemplary service we got from yourselves was true value for money. In particular, towards the end of the process when we had to deal with a very demanding buyer for our house we felt very well supported by you not just in the technical elements of your service but also in the responsiveness and personal support we received. We have heard numerous stories from friends and colleagues of how they have struggled with conveyancing services during property transactions and have enjoyed telling people what a positive experience we had with George Ide.
Jeremy & Nicky Mills
Nicholas Smith
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