Extending a lease

[GezFox]

Hi
I own a leasehold flat with less than 90 years to run on current lease. I really need to get on extending the lease ? Has anyone any advice on the process ? I assume I have to engage a lawyer and a valuer ? Any other tips ? All seems quite daunting !
Thanks
X

We paid a fee to our property management service last year to discover how much it would cost to extend the lease. It was quite a hefty fee just to get the information and it turned out that it wouldn't actually be worth the substantial sum they wanted for the extension. The price being pretty much what we would gain or lose on the sale.

As our area is now almost exclusively owned by by-to-let landlords and they want a fast return on their investment and are mostly buying without mortgages it makes more sense for us to sell without the extension and for the buyer to extend later if necessary. This also meant that the property remained under the new increased tax threshold for BTLs so meant the property was more attractive rather than less without the extension in our particular market.

So it doesn't always make sense to extend.

We did discover however, that the agents were prepared for us to make the extension process part of the selling/buying process so that the extra money went straight to them (and the new owner having the extension) rather than for us to find the money and extend beforehand.

Have a look at the leasehold advisory website - its really good.

Marriage value doesn't kick in until 80 years of the lease remains so you have quite a while.