Leasehold solicitor recommendations.

olisun

Hi,

I am looking to vary and extend my lease at the same time and I am trying to get some quotes.

Any for recommendations for a reliable leasehold solicitor?

eddddy

If you're varying and extending your lease - I guess you're making an informal arrangement with your freeholder/landlord. (As opposed to a statutory lease extension.)

Before instructing a solicitor, it might be good to make sure you've done all the preparation.

• Have you agreed a price and terms with your freeholder?

• Do you need to hire a valuer to value whatever lease extension terms you've been offered, to make sure they're reasonable? Or are you happy to proceed without a formal valuation?

• I guess you'll also be paying your freeholder's legal/valuation fees. Has your freeholder quoted fixed prices for those? (It could get expensive, if you're paying your freeholder's solicitor on their standard hourly rate.)

• How much do you trust your freeholder? A 'nasty' freeholder can play 'nasty tricks' with informal lease extensions. (So it's good to have an experienced solicitor who is familiar with the potential tricks.) For example, are you under time pressure to get this done, or is your remaining lease approaching 80 years?

(But to answer your question, I don't have a lease extension solicitor who I would particularly recommend.)

olisun

The freeholder has build 11 new flats on top of the existing flats and wants us to vary the lease.

I have decided to extend my lease because I don't know whether the new legislation (whenever it happens) is going to make it cheaper for me (85 years left and current ground rent at £50 increasing to £75 in 2035).

It will be a statutory lease extension along with the variation.

JM68

What is the variation the freeholder wants? Its more common for a leaseholder to seek a variation (e.g. to get rid of an onerous clause, or add a new one to enable sale e.g. mortgage protection clause) and have to pay a premium to get the freeholder to agree it.  It may be the case that you can actually ask the freeholder for a premium if they need you to agree a variation (e.g. for the new flats to be saleable) or use the fact they want one to your advantage in repsect of the premium for the lease extension.

olisun

The freeholder wants to include the 11 new flats in distribution of the service changes as it will make it cheaper for us, which I agree.

But one of the leaseholders (director of the RMC) wants to abolish the current block charges and go with the estate wide charges, which I have said I am not agreeing to it as it is open to abuse.

They seem to be very keen to push this for whatever reasons but it's easy to guess.

eddddy

olisun said:

The freeholder wants to include the 11 new flats in distribution of the service changes as it will make it cheaper for us, which I agree.

Are you sure it will cheaper?

Currently you are responsible for paying a share of insurance, maintenance and repairs of the original building.

After the variation, presumably you will be responsible for paying a share of insurance, maintenance and repairs of the original building plus the new part of the building.

Your %age share might be lower, but the total cost could be much higher - so your bill might be higher.





And if, for example, you agree to the variation, and the builders who built the new flats were cowboys - and it needs hundreds of thousands of pounds of repairs in a few years time - you will have to pay a share of those costs.

(Maybe you should get a surveyor to do a survey of the new part of the building, before agreeing to a variation.)