Services - Lease Enfranchisement

If you are a Landlord you need to be aware that an owner occupier of residential property on a long lease has rights to acquire the freehold or extend their Lease.  This is a right given by law.  The procedure is laid down in statute and regulation and has to be followed by both Landlord and Tenant.

If you own a leasehold residential property you may not think of yourself as a tenant, but you are.  If you need to extend your lease it is better to deal with it at a time picked by you than when you come to sell the property and find the ‘problem’ then.

Many mortgage lenders will not lend against what they see as a ‘short lease’.  This may still have 60 or more years to run on it!   Many properties built in the 1970’s with say, 99 year leases and these are now falling into this category. Your mortgage lender will have to agree to the lease extension but as it is better security for them, we have never experienced any difficulty with this.

If you think any of this may apply to you, we can find out for you and advise you of your options.  We can take you through the procedure for extending the Lease and dealing with the purchase of the freehold. This will certainly involve other properties in your block and the setting up of a Management Company to take over the functions of the maintenance and repair. We can arrange this. 

It will involve a surveyor valuing the freehold or lease extension and again we can put you in touch with a suitably qualified specialist.  Money does not always change hands but as a guide the shorter the lease to be extended, the more money the Freeholder will want.

We will try to tell you all the legal costs involves as soon as you start on the procedure although the amount paid to the Landlord may not be known at that stage. 

Call now for a free 30 minute no obligation appointment with  Lilian Demanovic  on  01628 798800.