Should I hang tight on lease extension?

Should I hang tight on lease extension?

10:17 AM, 20th January 2022, About 2 years ago 14

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I own a leasehold property with 85 years left on the lease. I am aware of proposed changes to the law around leases, but the changes haven’t been enacted by parliament yet.

The question is should I press ahead now and negotiate an extension with the freeholder, or should I wait?

Of course, I don’t want to get to the point where the lease becomes less than 80 years.

Many thanks for your thoughts and opinions.

Ian

 


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Comments

Gracie

21:27 PM, 20th January 2022, About 2 years ago

No point in rushing to renew now, but if gov hasn't made the adjustments to marriage value in the next 4.5 years (-ish), which is possible, I would start the formal process. The request (I forgot the process number / name) stops the clock, provided it's issued correctly. So the more research you do now & ensure that you know exactly who & where to issue the request, the later you can leave it to issue it, when the time comes (just in case the gov is close to final decisions)

Andrew Wright

10:53 AM, 21st January 2022, About 2 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Gracie at 20/01/2022 - 21:27
Yes there is no harm in waiting until closer to the 80 year marriage value cutoff, and seeing whether the ground rent changes make things simpler/cheaper. Deferring expense is also generally a good idea, and it won't cost you any more so long as you don't miss the deadline. I wouldn't count on other reforms happening any time soon.

Mick Roberts

14:49 PM, 22nd January 2022, About 2 years ago

I asked similar questions several months ago and got lots of helpful advice from people on here.

https://www.property118.com/how-do-i-increase-the-lease-on-my-4-nottingham-council-flats/

Lord Luncan

9:53 AM, 4th February 2022, About 2 years ago

The cost of a lease extension when the term is above 80 years is made up of two items, the capitalization of the rent and the deferred value of the reversion. The rates used in the formula may well become prescribed but it is highly unlikely that they will be higher than they are now. Therefore any government proposal will not assist in the lowering the premium where the term is above 80 years. The government may well make landlords bear their own costs and this will help make it cheaper and quicker for lessees to get a lease extension. A landlord who has acquired his interest post 1993 always knew of the possibility that a lessee may want a lease extension or enfranchise, and the receipt of a windfall should not be the end of the world for the freeholder.
If you wish to sell, the transaction would be a great deal quicker and easier if the matter of the shortish term lease has been resolved earlie.
As to informal lease extension there is no reason why they should not be considered, but have you advisor calculate the Net Present Value of the proposed ground rent ( this would be the sum if immediately after you took on the lease you wanted to rid yourself of the ground rent) -
So if a statutory lease extension premium was £20,000 and the informal offer was a premium of £10,000 with an indexed linked ground rent of £300 per annum reviewed every 10 years ( this has an NPV of around £10,000) then in theory you should be indifferent between the two offers. If the premium for the informal was £15,000 and the NPV of the rent was £10,000 then you should reject it.
If the NPV of the rent had always been shown next to the premium paid, then the problem of the 10-year doublers would never have arisen
This is no different from credit agreement where to help consumers there is an obligation to disclose the APR (Annual Percentage Rate - although 18% of the population thought it stood for April)

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