Formal leasehold extension under the Act

Leasehold extension is a right granted to tenants by the 1993 Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act. This Act allows leaseholders to force the landlord to extend a leasehold by 90 years, which is then added to the remainder of their original lease. The extended lease is then subject to a peppercorn rent, which effectively means that they don’t have to pay any ground rent on that lease.

Leasehold extension is something that is only available to residential leaseholders, most often in blocks of flats

The Leasehold Reform Act 1993 also lays down the criteria that people need to meet if they want to consider extending their lease and also sets out the process to be followed in order to do so.
Click here for more information about leasehold extension eligibility.

Got a lease extension question? Call our specialist solicitors on FREEPHONE 0800 1404544 for FREE initial phone advice – with no strings attached.

Informal leasehold extension

As an alternative to the statutory route to lease extension as described above, it is also possible to reach an informal or voluntary agreement to extend your lease with your freeholder. Whilst this can be quicker, there are a number of risks involved with this route. Click here to read more about the dangers of extending your lease informally

Leasehold extension – how to deal how to deal with disputes

If you end up in a disagreement with your freeholder over your desire to extend your lease, then you will have to apply to the First-Tier Tribunal Property Chamber ( previously known as the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal before a re-branding exercise], where your case will be heard and ruled on by an independent panel.

Applications to the Tribunal – which are expensive and can cause considerable delay – are relatively uncommon – fortunately common sense and a wish on behalf of both parties to keep legal costs down usually triumphs. Very few extensions that are successfully negotiated end up at a Tribunal.

If you are thinking of a lease extension under the Leasehold Reform Act 1993 then there is certain information you will need to collect and certain people you will need to get involved to help you. As with any aspect of the law it requires a particular process to be followed and there are plenty of opportunities for mistakes be made. In particular, there are a number of strict deadlines you would need to keep to. As a result it is definitely worth doing a bit of research to get to grips with the issues and then you will definitely need to appoint specialist lease extension solicitors and surveyors who will be able to help you through the process and provide specialist advice only lease extension dispute that may arise.

What happens if our freeholder is missing?

We can help you with the solution – the Vesting Order.
Click here to read more about vesting orders and absent freeholders

Lease extensions how big is the market?

In short – huge. According to the information from the National Statistics Office, England and Wales contains around “22.5m households” currently. Of those, around 4.5 million are flats and of those approximately 1.5million are long leasehold flats, i.e. flats which are eligible for lease extensions.

Given that number, it is staggering that so many owners of these properties are unaware of their legal rights to require their freeholder to extend the lease by 90 years when formally requested to do so.

Looking for specialist legal advice?

Very few property lawyers routinely deal with lease extension and enfranchisement and therefore often struggle to deal with them. That’s all our specialist five strong lease team do, day in day out.

However there is no reason to risk appointing a non-specialist to deal with extending a lease, leasehold enfranchisement or right to manage  – our team can help you wherever you live in England and Wales

For advice about how Leasehold Extension UK could help you, contact us today

For FREE initial phone advice from our specialist Lease Extension Solicitors;

• phone us on FREEPHONE 0800 1404544 or
• Send us an email using the contact form below.