Owning a flat usually means owning a lease of the property, which has a set term of years. your lease will normally be granted for a fixed period of time , usually 99 or 125 years, although we have seen longer and shorter terms in Seven Sisters. Clearly, the period of lease remaining reduces over time. This may slip by relatively unnoticed when the residence needs to be disposed of or re-mortgaged. The shorter the lease the less it is worth and the more it will cost to procure a lease extension. Qualifying leaseholders in Seven Sisters have the legal entitlement to extend the lease for an additional 90 years in accordance with the 1993 Leasehold Reform Act. Please give due consideration before putting off your Seven Sisters lease extension. Holding off the cost now likely increases the price you will ultimately incur to extend your lease
Leasehold premises in Seven Sisters with over 100 years outstanding on the lease are sometimes regarded as a ‘virtual freehold’. This is where the lease is worth the same as a freehold interest in your property. In such situations there is often little upside in buying the reversionary interest unless savings on ground rent and service charges justify it.
| Lender | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Bank of Scotland | Minimum 70 years from the date of the mortgage. |
| Barclays plc | Leases with less than 70 years at the commencement of the mortgage are not acceptable. Leases with fewer than 70 years should only be referred to the issuing office where the following scenario applies, as discretion may be applied subject to bank approval: • Property is located in any of the following prestigious developments: Cadogan, Crown, Grosvenor, Howard de Walden, Portman or Wellcome Trust Estates in Central London AND • The value of the property subject to the short remaining term is £500,000 or more AND • The loan to value does not exceed 90% for purchases, 90% like for like re-mortgages, 80% for re-mortgages with any element of capital raising and 80% for existing Barclays mortgage borrowers applying for additional borrowing; |
| Chelsea Building Society | 85 years from the date of completion of the mortgage. Please ensure that you explain the implications of a short term lease to the borrower. |
| Coventry Building Society | A minimum of 70 years unexpired lease at completion for all scheme types apart from Lifetime Mortgages (Equity Release), which require a minimum unexpired term of 80 years at completion. |
| Royal Bank of Scotland | Mortgage term plus 30 years. |
Irrespective of whether you are a tenant or a landlord in Seven Sisters,the lease extension experts that we work with will always be willing to discuss any residential leasehold matters and offer you the benefit of their in-depth market knowledge and the close ties they enjoy with Seven Sisters valuers.
Jamie was the the leasehold proprietor of a 2 bedroom apartment in Seven Sisters being marketed with a lease of a little over sixty years unexpired. Jamie informally approached his freeholder being a well known Bristol-based freehold company for a lease extension. The freeholder indicated a willingness to grant an extension taking the lease to 125 years subject to a new rent to start with set at £150 per annum and doubled every twenty five years thereafter. No ground rent would be payable on a lease extension were Jamie to invoke his statutory right. Jamie obtained expert advice and secured an acceptable resolution without going to tribunal and sell the flat.
Last July we were phoned by Mr and Mrs. R Bertrand , who moved into a one bedroom flat in Seven Sisters in March 2003. The question was if we could estimate the compensation to the landlord could be to extend the lease by a further 90 years. Comparable homes in Seven Sisters with a long lease were worth £300,000. The average ground rent payable was £50 invoiced per annum. The lease lapsed on 6 July 2101. Taking into account 75 years outstanding we approximated the compensation to the freeholder for the lease extension to be within £8,600 and £9,800 exclusive of expenses.
An example of a Freehold Enfranchisement matter before the tribunal for a Seven Sisters property is 22 Wakefield Road in January 2012. Following a vesting order Clerkenwell and Shoreditch County Court under section 26 of the Leasehold Reform,Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 on 9th May 2011 the Tribunal decided that the price that the Applicant for the freehold interest should pay is £17,400 This case was in relation to 2 flats. The unexpired lease term was 74.13 years.