It pays to know what you are doing when you are extending a lease as an understanding of the process will help you get things done as efficiently and quickly as possible. This guide takes you through some of the key facts and figures involved in lease extension so you will have a better understanding of what you are dealing with when it comes to putting everything into motion.

1993 Leasehold Reform Act
This is the Act of Parliament that gives tenants the right to a lease extension. Its full title is the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 (as amended). This is what sets down the process you are required to follow when extending a lease, so it is worth getting to grips with it.

21
This is the number of unexpired years that must have been left on your original lease if you are going to be eligible for a leasehold extension.

2
This is the number of years you need to have owned your property before you are eligible to extend the lease. However, the only criterion is that you own the property – you don’t necessarily have to have lived there.

80
If you have less than 80 years left on your lease when you start the process of extending your leasehold, you will have to pay an additional cost known as the ‘marriage value’. This increases the costs of lease extensions, so if possible you should definitely start the process as early as you can – before you pass that 80 year deadline.

90
This is the number of years you are able to extend your lease for under the 1993 Act. The number of years left on your original lease is added to this, so if you had a lease for 93 years and you extended it by 90 years, your new lease would be for 183 years.

Peppercorn rent
When you have extended your lease, you will be charged a peppercorn rent on it. This basically means that your ground rent on the new lease is negligible and it is one of the reasons people take the decision to extend their lease in the first place.

First-Tier Property Tribunal
If you are unable to come to agreement with your landlord over how much extending your lease should cost, you will need to ask your solicitor to refer the case to First-Tier Property Tribunal (previously known as the leasehold valuation tribunal). This is where the case will be debated and settled.

In need of a specialist Lease Extension Law Firm?

Making sure the law firm you appoint to manage your lease extension really understands lease extension is critical. Very few solicitors deal with lease extensions regularly – we have a three strong team dedicated to nothing but lease extension, collective enfranchisement and right to manage company formation.Wherever you are in the UK, for a FREE initial telephone consultation on extending the lease on a flat, either ;

• call our Solicitors today on 0800 1404544
• or email us using our contact form for FREE initial advice and a FREE quote or we can arrange to ring you back