Extending a lease
What you will need to do to extend your lease
Instruct a conveyancer/solicitor to serve the Council with a Section 42 Notice under the Leasehold Reform, Housing & Urban Development Act 1993, as amended.
How much will it cost?
You will need to pay for the following:
Lease premium cost:
- Your solicitor’s fees
- Council’s legal fees
- Council’s administration fees
- Council’s valuer fees
The Councils’ legal, administration and valuer’s fees are approximately £1,000-£2,500 (this is subject to change, please ask for an estimate at the time of your application)
Further reading about extensions
This leaflet explains all about extending a lease.
To apply you must have owned the lease on the property for at least two years. You will also have to pay the Council's (Landlord) legal and valuation costs, as well as your own costs and the lease premium (the price to extend the lease).
If you decide to proceed the Council can only enter into discussions with you on the price for the lease extension once you have served formal Notice. If both parties cannot agree on a price for granting the lease extension, the matter can be referred to the First Tier Property (Chambers) Tribunal for a decision.
What happens to your lease?
After the formal process to extend your lease has completed, you will have an additional 90 years on the unexpired term. Your annual ground rent will be peppercorn (not be payable) after this time.
You can obtain more information from the Leasehold Advisory Service.
The lease will last for 125 years from the date the 1st property in the block was sold. You can apply to extend your lease. You will have to formally notify the Council (Landlord) by service of section 42 Notice under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993, as amended. This legislation allows you to apply to extend your lease for an additional 90 years plus the current unexpired term (the number of years you have left) at a "peppercorn ground rent" which means you will no longer have any ground rent to pay.