Life left on lease not as expected

LondonGirl252

Morning all,


In a bit of a pickle here and not sure how much of an issue it is....


We're almost ready to exchange on a flat which when we bought it we were told by the EA had 89 years remaining on the lease.


We've now had all the Land Registry Docs back and it only has 85 years left on the lease.


I've looked into time frames and costs to extend the lease but I'm a bit concerned now that we're getting closer to that 80 year point which our solicitor has told us is where banks start to turn down lending on a property.


I know we have to live in the property for 2 years before we can apply to extend so the lease will be at 83 years by that point and in addition it can take 2 years to extend the lease. So we have a timeframe of approx. 4 years potentially, we're not planning necessarily to move out during this time but you never know what life throws at you and we could potentially have a flat decreasing in value due to lease if I am understanding all of this correctly?!


Thanks for your time and advice

lovehackney

As I understand it, this could be off putting for future buyers (TBH even 89 years would put me off) as they will almost definitely have to extend the lease - or you might have to extend it in order to sell it.

On the other hand, I'm assuming the flat is cheaper than similar flats with longer leases - so it depends on how much cheaper.

cloo

You can get the vendors to assign (I think it's called) lease to you via a section 42 notice, which means you won't have to wait two years and can start extending as soon as you move in. Will take some extra time, depends if they use a solicitor who knows what they're doing. www.lease-advice.org can advise.

You should definitely extend the lease before selling on - make sure it's done with a valuation so it's by the book. Freeholders sometimes do try to rip people off by just naming a price (which there's nothing stopping them doing, but it can be contested). Also worth knowing how contactable freeholder is, as it'll be much easier if they're at the end of a phone than if no one has a clue where they are!

eddddy

LondonGirl252 wrote: »

I know we have to live in the property for 2 years before we can apply to extend so the lease...

As Cloo says, you can ask the seller (or their solicitor) to serve a section 42 notice on the freeholder, then you wont have to wait two years. See http://www.lease-advice.org/information/faqs/faq.asp?item=189

Any conveyancing solicitor will be familiar with this - it happens frequently.

LondonGirl252

Ok thanks very much everyone that is very useful advice