extending a lease

Can Everyone Extend

Their Lease?

If you are thinking about a leasehold extension, there are three key criteria which you have to satisfy. If any one of the criteria does not apply to you, then you simply can’t force your freeholder to extend your lease. It’s therefore very important to make sure you are eligible before starting the lease extension process [is always worth bearing in mind that these criteria only apply to the formal statutory lease extension route – if you’re lucky and have a operative freeholder, you might be able to persuade them to grant you a voluntary or informal lease extension – but do bear in mind that choosing to go down that informal route does have its own risks].

 

The criteria are:

• Residential Lease. Commercial leases are not eligible to be extended, so you can only ask for an extension if your lease is for residential property [usually a flat or apartment though there are a very tiny number of leasehold houses in England Wales to its lease extension applies].

 

• Long leasehold. You can only extend your lease if the original term was wanted for a period of 21 years or more. It is very unusual to find a residential lease which is for such a short term [most modern residential leases are originally granted for 99 or hundred 25 years], but it is wise to check the original length of the lease before trying to extend it.

 

• 2 years should. You will need to have to have owned the lease you are wanting to extend for at least 2 years. That doesn’t mean that you will need to have ever actually lived in the property at all though. Leaseholders who rent their properties out can therefore still extend their lease as long as they have owned the property for at least 2 years, irrespective of whether or not they have lived in it.

 

Ineligible properties

In the overwhelming majority of cases, properties which meet the criteria listed above will be eligible for extending a lease. There are however a few rare types of properties which are exceptions to the rule. These are:

 

• Properties which are within the boundaries of Cathedrals
• Properties where the freehold is owned by the crown
• Properties were the National Trust is the freeholder
• Properties which are owned on a shared-ownership basis. You can only apply to extend the lease once you become the full owner of the property.

 

The Freeholder who refuses a lease extension

In general terms, a freeholder simply can’t refuse a lease extension provided the relevant criteria have been met. Freeholders can only refuse to extend your lease if one of the two following criteria apply:

• They already have plans to demolish the property concerned
• They think that you simply not eligible to apply for a lease extension

 

There are however some issues which can delay or hold up the lease extension process.

 

These can include things like arguments about whether the right procedure has been followed and whether or not your landlord’s legal fees (which you have to pay as part of the lease extension process) are reasonable and fair.

 

Bear in mind that the lease extension law and procedure is complicated. When picking your legal adviser, therefore, it’s important that you get a specialist, and few solicitors are genuine specialists in this field. So make sure that you instruct a solicitor with lots of experience in the lease extension process who can guide you through the process and keep you on the right track.