With a long leasehold property in Slade Green, you are actually purchasing a right to live in a property for a prescribed time frame. In recent years flat leases typically tend to be for 99 years or 125. Even though this may appear like a lengthy period of time, you should consider a lease extension sooner as opposed to later. Accepted thinking is that the shorter the lease is the cost of extending the lease gets disproportionately greater especially when there are less than 80 years left. Anyone in Slade Green with a lease approaching 81 years remaining should seriously think of extending it without delay. Once a lease has below 80 years left, under the current Act the landlord can calculate and demand a larger amount, assessed on a technical multiplication, known as “marriage value” which is due.
Leasehold properties in Slade Green with in excess of one hundred years outstanding on the lease are often regarded as a ‘virtual freehold’. This is where the lease value the same as a freehold interest in your premises. In such situations there is often little upside in purchasing the freehold unless savings on ground rent and service charges warrant it.
| Lender | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Bank of Scotland | Minimum 70 years from the date of the mortgage. |
| Birmingham Midshires | Minimum 70 years from the date of the mortgage. |
| Halifax | Minimum 70 years from the date of the mortgage. |
| Santander | You must report the unexpired lease term to us and await our instructions if: 1. the unexpired term assumed by our valuer is between 55 and 82 years, but the actual unexpired term differs by more than one year (whether longer or shorter); or 2. the unexpired term assumed by our valuer is more than 82 years but the actual unexpired term is less than 82 years; or 3. no valuation report is provided However, we will not accept a lease where on expiry of the mortgage: (i) less than 50 years remain and all or part of the loan is repaid on an interest-only basis: or (ii) less than 30 years remain and the loan is repaid on a capital and interest basis We will accept a lease that has been extended under the provisions of the Leasehold Reform Act 1993 provided statutory compensation would be available to the leaseholder. |
| Yorkshire 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. |
Retaining our service will provide you enhanced control over the value of your Slade Green leasehold, as your property will be more valuable and marketable in terms of lease length should you decide to sell. The conveyancers that we work with are well versed in the legislation handling many hundreds of lease extensions or freehold purchase transactions.
Following protracted negotiations with the freeholder of her garden flat in Slade Green, Isabel started the lease extension process as the 80 year mark was quickly approaching. The transaction was finalised in June 2013. The freeholder’s costs were kept to an absolute minimum.
In 2013 we were called by Dr F Phillips who, having owned a one bedroom apartment in Slade Green in March 2009. The question was if we could approximate the price would be to prolong the lease by 90 years. Comparable premises in Slade Green with 100 year plus lease were in the region of £184,000. The mid-range ground rent payable was £55 collected quarterly. The lease termination date was on 21 November 2078. Given that there were 53 years unexpired we estimated the compensation to the landlord to extend the lease to be between £28,500 and £33,000 not including legals.
An example of a Lease Extension matter before the tribunal for a Slade Green flat is Various @ Colombus Square in January 2012. the Tribunal calculated the premiums to be paid for new leases for each of the flats in Mariners Walk to be £3822 and the premium to be paid for the new lease of 2 Knights Court to be £4439. This case related to 13 flats. The unexpired residue of the current lease was 76 years.