Lease extension with Wandsworth council

AskAsk

We have a lease that has 88 years remaining.  We are planning to sell the flat next year so thought it would be a good idea to get the lease extended.  We have owned the flat for many years and had contacted Wandsworth council, who are the freeholder as the flat is ex-local authority, about the lease extension.  They said it will be fine to get the lease extended and directed us to the lease extension cost calculator for a guide on how much the lease extension will cost.

Should I instruct my solicitor, who does conveyancing for us, to do the lease extension work or should I instruct a specialist company that does lease extension work as I have seen ones where they have both solicitors and surveyors in house.

Anyone had experience with lease extension where the council is the freeholder?  I am thinking it should be an easy process as the council is unlikely to be unreasonable and trying to rip off leaseholders, demanding extortionate sums of money to agree to the extension, and so creating a dispute, which would lengthen the process.

SiliconChip

I would ask your solicitor for a quote, they may cut you a good deal as you're an existing customer, but if the amount is higher than you might expect then you could ask other solicitors to quote.

Jimmithecat

I’m in exactly the same situation as you AskAsk so please keep this thread updated.

I have slightly longer left on my lease with WC and was hoping perhaps the changes Gove was talking about regarding the change in leasehold legislation would make the process slightly more straightforward/less expensive 

EssexHebridean

Remember to factor in that you will also have to pay the freeholder’s legal costs - they should have quoted you the amount on that. (It will very likely be higher than your own costs!) 

Your conveyancing solicitor is likely to be able to help - if they don’t do lease Extn work themselves they will likely have someone else in the firm who does.

One thing to be aware of if you are looking to sell imminently- a few months ahead of the sale you will need to ask the solicitor who has done the Lease Extension to expedite the registration of it with the Land Registry as there is currently a massive backlog of these applications. An impending sale is one of the very few reasons they will take a request to expedite, though! 

AskAsk

EssexHebridean said:

Remember to factor in that you will also have to pay the freeholder’s legal costs - they should have quoted you the amount on that. (It will very likely be higher than your own costs!) 

Your conveyancing solicitor is likely to be able to help - if they don’t do lease Extn work themselves they will likely have someone else in the firm who does.

One thing to be aware of if you are looking to sell imminently- a few months ahead of the sale you will need to ask the solicitor who has done the Lease Extension to expedite the registration of it with the Land Registry as there is currently a massive backlog of these applications. An impending sale is one of the very few reasons they will take a request to expedite, though! 

so i have googled lease extension and it does seem to say that I need ALEB registered solicitors.  there are firms which offer solicitor and surveyor service as one, so i think it will be better to use these as their surveyors will also do lease extension valuations, which is not the same as a homebuyer valuation.

i did think about how long it takes for the land registry to register the new lease.  i was thinking that the lease already lodged with the land registry should be fine for a sale even if they haven't yet got round to uploading it onto their system?

eddddy

Lease extensions are a specialist area of law - conveyancing solicitors don't tend to have much experience in that area.

I've seen a couple of conveyancing solicitors say they'll "have a go" at doing a lease extension for a client - and then get out-smarted by the freeholder's specialist solicitor. And their clients lost out as a result.

But... that tends to apply to 'nasty' freeholders who want to 'rip-off' leaseholders. So you need a good solicitor, to stop that happening. Hopefully, Wandsworth Council wouldn't try that, and treat it's leaseholders fairly.


But maybe a good solution is to find a solicitor firm which has a Landlord and Tenant Law team (to deal with the lease extension) and a conveyancing team (to deal with the sale).

AskAsk

eddddy said:

Lease extensions are a specialist area of law - conveyancing solicitors don't tend to have much experience in that area.

I've seen a couple of conveyancing solicitors say they'll "have a go" at doing a lease extension for a client - and then get out-smarted by the freeholder's specialist solicitor. And their clients lost out as a result.

But... that tends to apply to 'nasty' freeholders who want to 'rip-off' leaseholders. So you need a good solicitor, to stop that happening. Hopefully, Wandsworth Council wouldn't try that, and treat it's leaseholders fairly.


But maybe a good solution is to find a solicitor firm which has a Landlord and Tenant Law team (to deal with the lease extension) and a conveyancing team (to deal with the sale).

reading up on the subject, it appears that the process is like buying a house, where the buyer / leaseholder will need to negotiate a price with the seller / freeholder, so i think having a specialist firm to deal with the process will save you money in getting the best accepted price for the lease, the premium.

AskAsk

Jimmithecat said:

I’m in exactly the same situation as you AskAsk so please keep this thread updated.

I have slightly longer left on my lease with WC and was hoping perhaps the changes Gove was talking about regarding the change in leasehold legislation would make the process slightly more straightforward/less expensive 

how many years do you have left on your lease?  i did hear about the leasehold reforms on the news.  as you mentioned it, i have googled the matter and will contact leasehold advisory for advice about whether it is worth hanging on with the extension until the new legislation comes out.  any ideas when that is likely to be?  next year or this year?

eddddy

AskAsk said:

reading up on the subject, it appears that the process is like buying a house, where the buyer / leaseholder will need to negotiate a price with the seller / freeholder, so i think having a specialist firm to deal with the process will save you money in getting the best accepted price for the lease, the premium.

I'd describe it more like the negotiations associated with a  divorce.

Potentially, it can end up like this...  Two parties are out to get the best result for themselves that they can. And there's some very complex legislation.

So you get this situation...

• The leaseholder's solicitor and valuer arguing that the lease extension should cost £8k, because of a, b, and c

• The freeholder's solicitor and valuer arguing that the lease extension should cost £15k, because of d, e, and f

(Where a, b, c, d, e and f are complex legal and/or valuation arguments, often based on previous tribunal decisions)

• And if the leaseholder and freeholder can't reach agreement - it ends up going to tribunal (court), which costs a fortune

Jonboy_1984

A family member is just finalising via one of these companies that advertise as handling it all in house and it turned out they subcontract it out to appointed solicitors and surveyors. They seem to be getting to the right place but their initial quote was unclear on how the surveyors fees were calculated and it cost a few hundred more than anticipated.

Bear in mind that if you undertake a fully informal extension they can vary the terms and any mortgage company need to approve the terms. If you follow the statutory section 42 process it will be on the same terms and mortgage companies are informed at the end.


The legal reforms were supposedly very close to being finalised when I started my own extension process in 2016…

eddddy

... and an example of a trick that I've seen a nasty freeholder play...

• The leaseholder starts the process to take the freeholder to tribunal (court)

• So the freeholder says "OK - I agree to do the lease extension for £10k"

• So the leaseholder says "Great - I've withdrawn the tribunal (court) case"

• But then the freeholder says "I've changed my mind - the price is £20k"

Having withdrawn from the tribunal (court) case, the leaseholder cannot restart it. So the leaseholder has to :

• Pay all the costs - perhaps £2k to £4k

• Wait 12 months before they can try to extend the lease again

• Pay another £2k to £4k in costs

That's typically why you need a specialist solicitor - who is aware of all those tricks.

(But like I say, hopefully Wandsworth Council wouldn't play tricks like that.)