Lease Extension - Advice please

[LucyLeaseExtension]

Does anyone have any advice whether I'm better off using a solicitor & a separate valuer or if I'd be better using somewhere like Homehold that does the entire thing?

The Freeholder is an arse who has his solicitor on speed dial if that makes any difference.

There are 8 flats, another flat owner tried to get an extension but was told it would cost £15,000, so he didn't follow through.

From what I've read (& I'm happy to be corrected) it should be £3-4,000 plus valuers/solicitors charges & Freeholders 'reasonable' legal fees.Average cost £9500 all up.

Not thrilled about that, but if I need to do it, I need to do it.

really just need to know which is better valuer & solicitor or a company that does the whole thing??

...and any reccomendations for either or other advice.

many thanks in advance!

Just a cheeky bump now it's a sensible hour to ask!!

Anyone??

There is a fantastic group on Facebook who will help. Standby will find it.

It’s National Leasehold Campaign

There is some new legislation going through parliament, have a look at it and see if you are going to be affected.

commonslibrary.parliament.uk/leasehold-reform-in-england-and-wales/

@FAQs THANKS.
cAn they need contacted in any other way? I don't use FB.

This is their website, their founders campaigned for the changes in the link posted above 👆

nationalleaseholdcampaign.org

How are you deciding the £3-4k level plus fees?

@sashh

thanks for your message. I haven't read all the documents myself (I just can't concentrate anymore, I have hideous brain fog) but MSE summarised it and it won't really help me. It might be cheaper when the second part comes into law (if it does) but it could be years away and by then my lease will be nearer the danger 80 years, so I can't really wait for it.

Have you used the lease calculator, although it’s a bit vague!

I extended the lease on my flat but it was 15 years ago! I got a surveyor to do a valuation, one who specialised in lease extensions. Then used a solictor to send the proposal including the valuation. Freeholder countered (on the last day he was able to) with double the price.

I had the right to counter as well, but as I was selling (original agents details had the lease term wrong and my crappy solictor didn't notice so only came to light when I started to sell) I accepted the price.

For context, the lease extension was £6k on a £270k flat with 76 years left, increased to 999 years. I paid about £2k in solicitors fees (mine and his). 15 years ago, so obviously costs will be a lot more now.

@FAQs Thank you! I'll have a look at that.

@SeasonFinale @FAQs

i used a few different online lease extension calculators including the one on MSE. It's not an expensive flat (around £200, 000) and ground rent is only £50 per year. 86 years to go.

do you think I'm incorrect?

@WhatsitWiggle thank you for your post. I typed a long reply but MN ate it!!

I'm sorry you ended up in that position.

My Freeholder is an absolute arse & I fully expect him to make it as expensive for me as he can.

Wish me luck!

Good luck! The process is relatively straightforward to be honest, just takes time if the freeholder is an arse and maxes out their response time. So doing it now whilst time is on your side is the best thing.

Are the other tenants in a position to extend the freehold as well? As you might have a stronger position if more of you club together? I was in a Victorian conversion, 4 flats total but 2 were rented out and 1 had only recently bought so hadn't been in long enough to qualify.

Not much help but used to work for a freeholder who had thousands of properties. He wasn't a crook but my goodness, he was clever with leases and a multi millionaire.

I looked to buy a flat with 80yrs left three years ago. The extension was quoted at £20k. A friend can't sell her flat as it has a similar length left and she's been quoted £25k to extend in order to sell. Your offer sounds very reasonable to me tbh.

@WhatsitWiggle Hopefully it won't be too much hassle, but a recent issue doesn't give me much hope, still, trying to be positive!!

No, only 2/8 are owner occupied. Freeholder owns 2, other landlords not interested & the one that tried before is no longer interested.

The other owner occupier doesn't have the money & says she's not bothered what happens after she dies. (she's in her 60's, can't afford to move & her children all own homes), so there's only me.

I'm doing it now incase I can move in the future, I've been looking but can't find anything affordable worth moving to.

My Mum lives overseas so I may sell up to go & live back there, not sure. Not with my mum though 🤣🤣so I think I really need to do it,

How long does the lease have left? Under 85 years is usually when prices skyrocket.

You will be looking at £1000's

Go for a statutory lease extension. Don't go for an informal lease extension. With an informal lease extention your freeholder can ask for any lease ammendments such as increasing ground rent etc.... with a statutory lease extension it will increase your lease by 90 years and make ground rent peppercorn. This is what most of the lease extension calculators are based on.

Just go to your solicitor of choice and set the statutory extension ball rolling. You will have to pay yours and freeholders legal fees, you will also have to pay for a valuation for you and a separate valuation if the freeholder requests on of their choice of valuer.

It will add value and saleability to your flat as you are getting close to the 80 years where marriage value will come in to effect and you will find it a lot more expensive to extend the lease.

No it is under 80 years when marriage value comes in to play that prices increase. The OP has plenty of time left to get her extention through in time.

I was just about to say what @ItsSnowJokes said - you can go the informal route, which could be cheaper but likely less advantageous to you, or the statutory route, which from memory forces the ground rent to zero and adds 90 years to the current term. The latter is what we did. We did use a big company who were doing a group action in our area, and I think that did save us a bit in terms of legal fees.

The Leasehold Advisory Service used to be excellent.

It can take ages with offers and counter offers. Ours was down to about 72 years and I think it cost about £23k all in, but I might be wrong. If yours is over 80 years, it will be much cheaper.

Facebook groups are actually really useful for recommendations, but if you don’t use them, I’d contact a few local solicitors and ask what their fee would be for handling the extension - there are usually some who specialise in this kind of thing. Find out how much a survey would be, and then compare it with a company who do the same thing. Personally, I’d probably rather pick my own professionals than use a company if there’s no group action involved and saving to be made - but it could be cheaper and more efficient, I guess.

Oh, and I feel your pain - residential leasehold is, IMHO, an absolute racket.

so need to get a shift on, but I didn't think it changed much until 80??

It's not an offer, it's just from
a calculator online.

Depends on the value of the property & ground rent as well. So not necessarily apples to apples,

@ItsSnowJokes thank you got your post. I had read about statutory v informal on MSE. Annoyingly I was told by a lawyer, last year, to leave it a year then approach informally, so I've waited a bit but read up on the above & decided to go for a statutory.

Local Estate Agents have been crap from every view point & keep saying it really won't affect the price, or saleability, I disagree, but it doesn't fill me with confidence for selling through them!