Lease Extensions

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Lease Extension

Do you have a short lease and are concerned that this may make it difficult to sell your flat? You have an absolute right, subject to a few qualifying conditions, to extend your flat lease by a further 90 years.

The conditions you must comply with are:-

a. The lease must be for a term of more than 21 years
b. You must have owned the property for at least 2 years

The new lease will be for an additional 90 years and the ground rent will be a peppercorn (nil). The service charge will remain the same.

Collective Purchase of the Freehold

It is possible to purchase the freehold of the block of flats with the other tenants of the property. Again, if you are able to meet the criteria you will have an absolute right to purchase the freehold. Those criteria are:-

a. Each tenant must own a lease which has a term of more than 21 years
b. Not less than 50% of the tenants of all the flats in the building must participate

By purchasing the Freehold the tenants will become their own Landlords and can grant new leases at nil ground rent to each tenant.

How Can We Help?

The Landlord will be entitled to receive a fair value for the lease extension or freehold purchase. We can instruct a specialist surveyor to obtain a likely value for you. This figure can then be agreed by negotiation with the Landlord or if an agreement can't be reached it will be resolved by the Land Valuation Tribunal who will reach a figure they consider reasonable.

Right To Manage

Are you dissatisfied with the way in which your Landlord is managing your block of flats? Are you unhappy with the maintenance works carried out or the level of service charge?

Qualifying tenants (except for those living in a block where the Local Authority is the Landlord) have a right to compel the Landlord to hand over the management of the block to them. The criteria they must fulfil is:-

a. At least two flats must be held by tenants with leases of over 21 years in length
b. At least two thirds of the flats must be held by tenants with leases over 21 years
c. At least 75% of the floor area of the building must be residential.

We can help the Tenants set up a Right to Manage Company who will then be responsible for maintaining the building and can serve the necessary notices on the Landlord and deal with the necessary formalities.

Contact Paul Prikryl on 01494 864 650 or complete our contact form