Home > Residential Leases > Lease Extensions
Our Lease Extension Solicitors Promise
Our lease extension solicitors can assist you with extending your lease, negotiating terms, and ensuring you secure a fair agreement.
Need legal advice now from a lease extension solicitor?
Call, email or provide us with a few details of your matter, and we’ll help you arrange an initial consultation. You’ll get:
- Unlimited time to discuss your matter with an experienced leasehold solicitor
- An outline of your legal position in your matter
- A clear fee-quote and time frames to resolve your case
The Lease Extension Experts
- Extending your Lease
- Negotiating Terms
- Secure a Fair Agreement
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Commonly asked questions.
The lease extension process is complex, with plenty of potential errors that can allow a freeholder to challenge the extension. Our solicitors have answered some of the most commonly asked questions on the topic. If your question isn’t listed please get in touch with our team today.
1. When should I extend my lease?
We advise that you begin the process of extending your lease before it reaches 80 years or below.
Once your lease period falls below 80 years you become liable to pay “Marriage Value” when extending. This adds a significant cost to the extension process.
Marriage Value means that when extending a lease below 80 years the landlord is entitled to 50% of the value the lease extension will add to the property. For instance, if the property were to gain £20,000 in value from the lease extension, £10,000 must be paid to the landlord during the renewal.
If you’d like to talk to one of our leasehold experts about your lease renewal you can book an initial consultation by calling 0203 007 5500.
2. What happens when my lease ends?
If you fail to renew your lease before the end of its term the property will convert back to a freehold property automatically.
This means the landlord, will regain possession of the property and you may be asked to vacate the premises.
Depending on your terms and conditions, you may also be liable for any damages to the property.
In short, you don’t want your lease to expire.
3. How do I extend my lease?
There are two routes in which you can extend your lease.
The formal route will offer you more protection as it is governed by the Leasehold Reform Housing Urban Development Act, 1993 whereas the informal route may save you time and money.
The Informal Route
You can ask your freeholder at any point if they are interested in negotiating a lease extension. Note the freehold has no obligation to agree or even respond to your informal request.
If they do agree, you can negotiate. But, if you can’t agree on terms or price you will need to take the formal route of extending your lease.
The Formal Route
If you own your flat, you can extend your lease by law providing you meet the following requirements.
- You must have owned your lease for the past two years,
- It must be a ‘long lease’ (a lease with an original term of more than 21 years when first granted)
- Your landlord is not a charity providing a flat as part of their work,
- It is not a business or commercial lease.
This route requires you and the freeholder to follow specific procedures and timescales set out by law. It can be complicated, and there is plenty of room for error. We highly recommend you consult with a solicitor before starting.
If you’d like to talk to one of our leasehold experts about your lease extension you can book an initial consultation by calling 0203 007 5500.
4. How much will my lease extension cost?
The cost of extending a lease is directly tied to the value of the property. It also varies depending on the remaining term.
Extending a lease will add value to a leasehold property. Once a lease falls below 80 years, the landlord is entitled to Marriage Value when the leaseholder is extending their lease. This is what add a significant proportion of the cost to lease renewals.
Marriage Value means that when extending a lease below 80 years the landlord is entitled to 50% of the value the lease extension will add to the property. For instance, if the property were to gain £25,000 in value from the lease extension, £12,500 must be paid to the landlord during the renewal.
If you’d like to talk to one of our leasehold experts about your lease renewal you can book an initial consultation by calling 0203 007 5500.
5. Do you offer legal aid for leasehold matters?
We are currently unable to offer legal aid in any capacity as we lack the necessary legal aid certificate. So, for the time being, we can only accept privately funded cases.
Need legal advice now from a leasehold solicitor?
Tell us about your case, and we’ll get back to you the same day.
Meet our expert property law team.
Paul Britton
Managing Director
Sophie Campbell-Adams
Director and Solicitor
Mary Ibrahim
Solicitor
Leonardo Bosco
Solicitor
Alexander Grist
Trainee Solicitor
Aryan Fallahi
Trainee Solicitor
Grace Marchant
Trainee Solicitor
Hanna Batkin
Paralegal
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