a lease extension question

hedgehogpenguin

Hi, do you think that with property prices plummeting that it would be a good idea to wait a while to extend a lease of 75 years ? I understand that marriage value is payable on a lease of this length, but will this amount become less as property prices lessen ?
many thanks

hedgehogpenguin

anyone ? shameless bump there !!

puddy

well i would have thought so, but in addition, i was just logging on to make my own valuation extension query.
I am selling my flat, it has been on the market for 6 months now with only 6 viewers. one viewer has expressed an interest but says that the 80 year lease that i have is too short and could i find out how much it would be to extend it.

so i did some ball park figures online but that isnt enough for her, i was asked to contact the landlord and obtain a figure. i have emailed the managing agents, who have come back to my request with a request of £350 plus VAT to process the application and then another £650 to instruct their surveyor (who I notice used to work for the managing agent until we all made such a load of complaints about him he left)

Does anyone know whether the 350 quid for the managing agent to 'process' the application is considerd 'reasonable', do you also know whether i have the right to instruct any surveyor or does it have to be someone of the landlords choice and lastly, do i have to make an 'application' in order to get the cost of extending the lease and would you bother if you were in my situation, with an 80 year lease that no one else has ever queried, BUT who is the only person that has so far shown an interest in my flat. what if she ends up not buying it, i will have wasted a thousand pounds???

EdInvestor

Have a word with the people here,very helpful, about the charges issue.

https://www.lease-advice.org.uk

If you have been in your flat for 2 years or more you can serve notice that you want to extend the lease. The freeholder will then advise you of the price. You can ask around in estate agents ( and your solicitor) as to whether the price is fair. If it isn't you can dispute it at the LVT.

Usually a buyer will want this extension deal progressed at the time of the sale as the cost can either be deducted from the sale price or added to the mortgage.

GDB2222

hedgehogpenguin wrote: »

Hi, do you think that with property prices plummeting that it would be a good idea to wait a while to extend a lease of 75 years ? I understand that marriage value is payable on a lease of this length, but will this amount become less as property prices lessen ?
many thanks

All other things being equal, the cost goes up at around 5% a year less any property price reduction, which I would expect to be more than 5% over the next year. So, i would wait at least 1 year.