Do I need a solicitor to extend my lease?

[daimbar]

The lease on my flat is 84 years.

I got an independent valuer to do a report and he said to offer the freeholder £8k to extend it by 90 years.

He advised me to go direct to the freeholder and not bother with a solicitor. Is this good advice? It is tempting to save the fees but I don't want to be naive.

You can go to the Freeholder to negotiate the price but solicitors will need to agree the form of the lease extension and register it at the land registry usually.

I agree that you can do the initial form yourself (there are various websites where you can download the form) to send to the freeholder but it will be invalid if its not correct. Its probably worth spending the money on getting a solicitor involved, particularly as you'll need one to agree the new lease.

Thanks both! Appreciate the advice and I will use a solicitor in that case

£8k is very steep. At 84 years you'd just be looking at legal costs as marriage value doesn't kick in until 80 years. It cost me £5k to extend a 72 year lease.

£8 is not particularly steep. In some areas it can be over £30k. As with all things property it will depend on the area that the property is in.

There is a formula for working out these things - taking into account the value of the property, length of lease, etc. Presumably your valuer has used this.

Presumably there would need to be a solicitor anyway, to draw up a new lease. However, one reason to use one before that would be if your freeholder asks for more than has been reasonably offered. In that case then AFAIK the decision can go to an independent tribunal to decide on a fair price.