Extending Lease on a Leasehold Property

emmgib

I’m wanting some advice regarding my leasehold.
We have a mortgage and we have currently got 63 years left on our lease. We would like to move but with the short lease this is not possible. We have contacted the leaseholder (we had to use a solicitor to find out who owned the freehold due to it been sold last Oct without our knowledge, and had no details of the new freeholder this cost £150!) The freeholder has got back with an extension fee of £16,000 (we live in a small mid terrace! The last company wanted £3000 to buy it!) and then up the ground rent to £250 a year (currently £25) we know he can’t do this due until the current lease runs out. My gut feeling is he doesn't really know what he has purchased... but now he's not responding is just frustrating.

Our Solicitor has heard nothing back as he has queried the costs – but now he says we have the option of putting in a claims notice but this again will cost money (with court fees around £4000-5000 plus the £16000 we can’t afford this)– I thought we could extend the lease by law? Other properties in our area have done this for £1500?? (I have a friend who is an estate agent and has done roughly 15 the last month all around that price)

Anyone else had the same issues?

always_sunny

you can use the online calculator to give you an indication of how much it'd cost to extend the lease http://www.lease-advice.org.uk/calc/Default.aspx

Values are an indication assuming you get a statutory extension paying peppercorn ground rent.

If you have 63 years left on your lease, I am no specialist, but £1500 seems very low because under 80 years left, you will also have to pay marriage value.

In regard to the sale, I assume you mean buying your freehold instead, I believe you should have first right of refusal, though not sure what recourse you may have if you were not provided that option.

eddddy

always_sunny wrote: »

you can use the online calculator to give you an indication of how much it'd cost to extend the lease http://www.lease-advice.org.uk/calc/Default.aspx

... that's probably not relevant, because...

emmgib wrote: »

we live in a small mid terrace!

So it sounds like this is a house.

And as the calculator says:

This calculator will give you an estimate of the premium for a lease extension for a flat,

If you haven't seen it already, there's some useful background info here:

https://www.gov.uk/leasehold-property/extending-changing-or-ending-a-lease

http://www.lease-advice.org/faq/i-cant-afford-to-buy-the-freehold-of-my-house-can-i-extend-my-lease-instead/

emmgib

Most details on web are for flats - It's just very frustrating


Thanks

eddddy

emmgib wrote: »

Most details on web are for flats - It's just very frustrating

You mention that your solicitors are dealing with this - it would normally be a valuer/surveyor that negotiates on price (unless you have a very specialist solicitor).

Unusually, this surveyor/valuer seems to have on online calculator for house freehold purchases: http://www.m-js.co.uk/calculator

(I don't know that firm, so I don't know if their calculator is realistic, and I'm definitely not making a recommendation.)

emmgib

Thanks this says £600 plus the usual legal costs.... a lot cheaper than £16,000!


I've emailed them


Thanks again

emmgib

We've used a property solicitor as recommended by our estate agent - they have sorted a number of freehold purchases/ extensions out in our area

eddddy

emmgib wrote: »

We've used a property solicitor as recommended by our estate agent - they have sorted a number of freehold purchases/ extensions out in our area

The usual process is to use a valuer and a solicitor. Because solicitors don't tend to get involved in valuations. (Just like if you were buying a house, the solicitor wouldn't get involved in valuing the house.)

Whenever I speak to solicitors about lease extensions, the first thing they tell me is that I should instruct a valuer (and they often recommend one).