Lease Extension .I need advice and guidance from Experts please

Jesse009

Hello all
I am in the process of extending the lease for my flat. The current lease remaining is 76 years. I have contacted the housing association and I have 
been informed that there are 2 routes that I can use to extend. Voluntary route or statutory route. With these years remaining, please can somebody with
experience advice me which route is the best. I am dreading the amount that the lease will cost. I have been informed by the housing association that I will have 
to pay for their solicitors fees and and also the valuation fees. 

Thank you in advance

eddddy

In general...

• If you can agree good terms with your landlord (the Housing Association?), the informal (voluntary) route is usually quicker and the legal fees are cheaper.

• If you can't agree good terms with your landlord, or you don't trust your landlord, or your landlord is being difficult - it's often best to go down the statutory route - but that takes 6 to 18 months, and the legal fees will probably be higher.

You should probably avoid the informal (voluntary) route if you have a 'nasty' landlord. I've seen 'nasty' landlords play very nasty games with leaseholders using the informal (voluntary) route.

But I would expect a housing association to be fair and honest - so the informal (voluntary) route might be ok.


With the informal (voluntary) route, the key things to agree on are:

• The premium (or cost) for the lease extension
• The number of years to be added to the lease (with a statutory lease extension it's 90 years)
• The new ground rent (although I believe the law now says it has to be £0)
• The legal and valuation fees that the landlord will charge you

Here's some more info: https://www.lease-advice.org/article/lease-extension-of-leasehold-flats-the-two-routes/

You could also contact a few specialist lease extension valuers, or specialist lease extension solicitors for an initial chat about the options.

Jonboy_1984

Do you have mortgage on the property:

If you do then your mortgage company will need to approve a voluntary extension, at a cost, because they often involve changes to the lease terms.

For a statutory extension your solicitor will effectively just need to inform them it has happened.

I got messed around with on the informal route and had to switch to statutory route anyway (although that wasn't painless).

Tracet74

I work with a valuation firm who specialise in this type of work.  Given you have 76 years remaining, we would recommend you begin a statutory lease extension claim.  By serving a Section 42 Notice on the freeholder (your housing association), you set the date of valuation and prevent the lease dropping any lower.  This also means you are exercising your right to a 90 year extension and peppercorn ground rent (effectively nil).

The informal route will remain open to you, however by serving Notice you have protected your position and ensured you will be in the driving seat during any future negotiations.

Unfortunately, in either scenario, you are responsible for the freeholders' fair and reasonable legal and valuation costs, which is something you should factor into your budget.

I hope this helps!”