Advice needed with extending a lease

[TheSaintVII]

Hi all,

My wife and I own a 1 bedroom flat which:

• would be valued at £95,000 (if the lease was over 80 years)
• has 76 years on the lease
• we pay £50 ground rent per year
• we've owned for more than 2 years

I understand from reading this site, and others, that we have the legal right to have the lease extended by 90 years if we can agree a fee with the landlord. We've contacted the landlord and they've agreed to listen to offers before going down the road of getting it officially valued etc.

We only want to extend the lease back up to 99 years to try and keep costs down as we're looking to sell up and move in the near future. Looking at various calculators online the cost to extend it by 90 years would be £3500 - £4000, but what would be a fair offer for a 23 year extension?

Has anyone had any experience in doing this?

Any help would be gratefully appreciated!!

[Dan S]

Hi TheSaintVII

That sounds like a fairly reasonable amount to pay. It all depends of course on the value of the home and length of the lease outstanding. Have you received any bespoke quotes from companies?

[Mark Coupe]

Under the 1993 Leasehold Reform Act qualifying tenants have the right to force their landlord to grant them a new lease for a term of 90 years, plus the present unexpired term, at a peppercorn rent (i.e. no ground rent payable in the future).

There's nothing to prevent you trying to informally agree a price between with your landlord for a 23 year extension but the important point is that but you can't force them to do so.

lease extensions are an area I deal with regularly so I have some experience.

In any event you should take the advice of a surveyor regarding the valuation.