If I buy a house with a 13 year lease can it be extended?

SimPaul

Does anyone know the rules?

Looking at a property in London with a 13 year lease. Can this be extended on purchase and what would the process be?

(Obviously I'm aware I couldn't get a mortgage on it)

Thanks!

ILW

I think you will find that the cost of extending the lease will not be much less than buying an equivalent freehold house.

dogbot

I think you would need to contact the freeholder to find out if they are willing to refresh it and how much they will charge. They might be willing to sell the freehold you never know. Why has anyone let the lease get so low?!

I don't know the exact in's and outs but got a rough idea as we are buying a leashold flat, I understand it could be something of a complex nightmare!

SimPaul

ILW wrote: »

I think you will find that the cost of extending the lease will not be much less than buying an equivalent freehold house.

Really? So say with 100 year lease it would be worth £100k, and with 13 year lease it's worth £30k...you think it would be as much as £70k to extend?

(Not disbelieving you, just never imagined it would be that much!)

ILW

SimPaul wrote: »

Really? So say with 100 year lease it would be worth £100k, and with 13 year lease it's worth £30k...you think it would be as much as £70k to extend?

(Not disbelieving you, just never imagined it would be that much!)

Think of it from the freeholders position. If they hang on to it for another 13 years it reverts back to them and is worth full market value.

mlz1413

The freeholder may not sell you a 100 years it may only be 25 years.

I think sometimes you can't extend until you have owned for 2 years, so it maybe better to get the exsisting owner to extend before completion.

00ec25

after 2 years of ownership you have the right to extend your lease, but obviously the right to extend does not affect the price you will be offered, you may still regard it as unaffordable

prior to that you have no rights at all, it would be by negotiation

read the guidance here http://www.lease-advice.org/

cattie

Beware of any property with such a low lease. :eek: As most owners worry about leases that start to fall under the 75/80yr mark, you have to ask yourself why the current owner never applied for a lease extension, thus making their property more saleable, more valuable & offering more security in the long term. There is usually a very good reason why people have failed to do this.Reasons such as cost or absent freeholder perhaps.

It will be expensive to extend such a lease as mentioned by others. The shorter the lease the more costly it is. Owners don't have a legal right to a lease extension untill they have owned a property for 2yrs. It is possible to be granted an extension on your lease before the 2yr ownership period is up if the freeholder agrees to it, but he doesn't have to agree untill the 2yr period is up.

Check out the lease-advice site as suggested. It contains lots of info that will help you.

barnaby-bear

SimPaul wrote: »

Really? So say with 100 year lease it would be worth £100k, and with 13 year lease it's worth £30k...you think it would be as much as £70k to extend?

(Not disbelieving you, just never imagined it would be that much!)

Easily - could be far more.... and you'd have to pay cash for what you buy now as with a short lease unmortgagable....

http://www.tenancy-agreements.co.uk/lease.php