Has anyone had to extend lease and sell and the same time?

[FrazzleRock]

My lease is stupidly low. We bought the flat 8/9 years ago and it was only 67 years then which is why it was so cheap. We just never had the money to extend it. Obviously we'll need to take the cost out of the value price which I'm guessing will be about £35/£40k

I'm just concerned it will be very complicated and expensive in fees.
How complicated does it get? Is it a very long drawn out process? We need to move fairly quickly (by September if poss)

I'l love to hear your experiences of this!

[cooper44]

yes I did this and it was a housing association flat too so even more complicated. I think it added a few months to conveyancing - I had a separate solicitor working on the lease extension. It was fine - a bit stressful but not dreadful. I had an independant valuer who came to work out the amount for the lease extension - I think mine was only just under 80s years and I had to pay something like £10K. And I am pretty sure that money was taken out of funds on completion of the sale. Make sure you get a good, efficient solicitor to work on the lease extension.

[McBaby]

We bought and extended at the same time so the money was paid out of the money paid over to our seller before she received it. It meant additional fees to the freehold solicitor etc but was quite straightforward. (The person we bought from had agreed to it but was not willing to sort it out herself).

[HelpfulChap]

A new 99yr lease will cost £7.5-£8k.

I'm doing one right now (on a property with 75 years existing).

[Halfacentury]

I extended but didn't sell at the same same time.
In my experience the time it takes depends in your leaseholder. If they want to play games - mine did - it can take a looong time. My solicitor advised booking a court date (sorry can't remember what it was) and the leaseholder signed the day before, ie leaving it as late as possible.
Ours cost £40k on a flat worth £500k with 64 yrs left in the lease + what seemed like a lot of costs.
Get it done as quickly as possible as it keeps getting more expensive with a shortening lease and rising property prices - but I'm sure you know this. Really wish I'd done mine sooner. It used all my savings and them some

[FrazzleRock]

Well I'll never buy a flat again with a lease. Definitely learnt my lesson.

So I have about 56/57 years left. Getting flat valued on Monday but I would hazard a guess at it being worth about 300k (if lease was 99 years)

This is eating into a lot of the profit . But we were never ever in the position financially to extend the lease before, unfortunately, which is why it got so bad.

I think DP worked it out online to be about £40k which make me feel horrendously sick. The only way we can extend is if it's done at same time as the sale.
Also, the estate agent has told me my leaseholders are notoriously bad

[Quodlibet]

Do you mean your freeholders? I would think the first thing to do is to contact the freeholders and make sure they are happy to extend the lease. I don't think they have to if for some reason they have plans for the building.

The Leasehold Advisory Service is a good resource - will advise you for free. They have a value calculator on their website.

It can take a while to get the legal work done - we extended ours recently and it's taken 6 months for the land registry to update the records - but if you were doing it as part of the sale this wouldn't be a problem as the lease could go straight into new owner's name.

[PragmaticWench]

I had mine extended to 125 years, it didn't cost any more than 99 years would have and looked better when I then sold the flat. Just a thought.

[FrazzleRock]

Thanks Quodlibet yes I did mean freeholders (pregnancy brain). That's really helpful actually.

pragmatic oooh... That IS interesting. I'll find out

Thank you everyone else too!

[LBOCS2]

Is it a big block? Your other option as a group is to exercise your right to buy your freehold...

[FrazzleRock]

No, it's a maisonette. So there's just my downstairs neighbours and us

[lalalonglegs]

Be warned that most lenders won't lend on a property with a short lease even if there is permission to extend so you may have to find a way of borrowing the extension money short term, doing the extension and then selling. I believe (but am not sure without looking it up) that the extensions are always 89 years so your lease will come then have 146 years or thereabouts to run. Don't be tempted to extend the lease "informally" as the freeholder will only extend to c 99 years and jack the ground rent right up and make it a much less attractive proposition to sell on and very expensive to extend when it winds down to 80 years.

[cestlavielife]

yes i sold and the lease extension was completed same day so the buyer paid for the lease extension. the price sold at was recorded n land registry as price of flat x plus price of lease extension y so x+y. i had to pay legal fees for the lease tho. it was around 19k for the extension of additional 99 years to a 79 year lease plus 5k fees eg surveyor both sides etc. get the process started before you sell.

[cestlavielife]

if you start process now then depending on how negotiations go (get a good surveyor/valuer) you should easily have it all ready in few months time. you can then set completion for sale date and include it in cost of the property if you cant get the money up front.

[Aly1022]

cooper44 - if you are still there, can you please share the details of your solicitor...? I am also a housing association victim with a low lease flat and looking to extend it, so desperately need to find a solicitor experienced with this sort of thing...
Thanks!