extending a lease on a flat

bookadict

hi there people

I bought an apartment not long ago (will be 2 years in October) and I am interested in extending the lease to "peppercorn" the ground rent. The current lease is for 125 years (so by the time I qualify to extend it will have 123 years remaining) i want to extend while I won;t have to pay the "marriage" costs.

The apartment cost £125,000 when I bought it so I would estimate the value to be more like £110000 at this current time.

Could anyone give me an idea as to:

A) How much this costs approx.

How much it would add to the value of the apartment if I chose to sell.

C) Is this a better option than buying the freehold.

D) After the lease extension has been approved what would the ground rent actually be as i have read that effectively you pay a "peppercorn" meaning essentially its rent free til the lease is up.

Please can someone shed some light as to what is FACT and even better if you have had experience in the process and could offer advice as to what to do.

Many thanks

Doozergirl

I don't understand why you'd do that. Your lease is long enough, the freehold is virtually worthless so no, it's not worth extending the lease over buying the freehold.

And it's not really worth buying the freehold either because the lease is so long. Neither would add any value to your apartment. If there were an absolutely identical property and someone had to choose from your or theirs and theirs were share of freehold, the other would probably pip yours in terms of saleability but the value would be not much more at all - and that's when presented with something identical - that won't happen in real life.

If both had leases then there would be no difference in value at all - yours is long enough.

Unless you're planning to live there forever I cannot see the point. The legals on extending the lease alone are likely to come to around 1500 as you have to pay yours and the freeholders. Plus a valuation fee and a fee for the managing agent's input. That's all before you even get a price.

You don't have to wait 2 years to ask for a lease extension, you can ask and the freeholder can agree to one at any point. Owning it for two years gives you the legal right to an extension simply if you have to contend with an awkward freeholder.

You'd be throwing good money down the drain with a lease extension or share of freehold at this point.