Lease Extension

ThemeOne

I'm a leaseholder and recently decided to look into extending my lease.

I have 94 years remaining, so no great urgency. The property is ex local authority, so I got in touch with the council and they've given me a quote for increasing the lease to 125 years, which was its original term.

I'm a bit confused as I thought leases were always extended by 90 years, but in this case they're proposing only a 31 year extension.

Is it in fact up to the freeholder how much they offer to extend, or am I entitled to demand a 90 year extension?

eddddy

There are two routes you can follow:

1. A statutory lease extension
2. An informally agreed lease extension

A statutory lease extension adds 90 years to the term, and reduces the ground rent to zero

An informal lease extension can be any terms that the freeholder and leaseholder agree.

So your freeholder is proposing an informal lease extension of 31 years. You can agree to that, or try proposing/negotiating something different.

ThemeOne

Thank you, that's very clear, and the council did say this would be an informally agreed extension.