With a long leasehold property in West Wickham, you are actually buying a right to live in a property for a set period of time. These days flat leases are usually granted for 99 years or 125. Even though this may appear like a lengthy period of time, you should consider extending the lease sooner rather than later. Accepted thinking is that the shorter the number of years is the cost of extending the lease increases markedly especially once there are fewer than 80 years left. Anyone in West Wickham with a lease nearing 81 years left should seriously think of extending it without delay. When a lease has under 80 years outstanding, under the current statute the landlord is entitled to calculate and charge a greater premium, based on a technical multiplication, strangely termed as “marriage value” which is due.
Leasehold premises in West Wickham with in excess of 100 years remaining on the lease are often referred to as ‘virtual freehold’. This is where the lease is worth the same as a freehold interest in your premises. In such circumstances there is often little upside in buying the reversionary interest unless savings on ground rent and maintenance charges warrant it.
| Lender | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Godiva Mortgages | 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. |
| Lloyds TSB Scotland | Minimum 70 years from the date of the mortgage. |
| Skipton Building Society | 85 years from the date of completion of the mortgage For Buy to Let cases: - lettings must not breach any of the lessee’s covenants; and - consent of the lessor to lettings must be obtained if necessary |
| TSB | Minimum of 70 years at mortgage commencement, with 30 years remaining at mortgage redemption. |
| Virgin | 85 years at the time of completion. If it's less, we require it to be extended on or before completion. |
Engaging our service gives you better control over the value of your West Wickham 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 have a in-depth market knowledge handling many hundreds of lease extensions or freehold purchase transactions.
In 2014 Archie, started to get near to the eighty-year mark with the lease on his basement apartment in West Wickham. Having bought his flat two decades ago, the unexpired term was of no importance. As luck would have it, he became aware that he needed to take steps soon on a lease extension. Archie arranged for a lease extension just in the nick of time in July. Archie and the landlord subsequently agreed on a premium of £5,000 . If the lease had slipped lower than eighty years, the figure would have escalated by a minimum £950.
In 2012 we were phoned by Mr V Harris who, having purchased a first floor apartment in West Wickham in November 2000. We are asked if we could approximate the compensation to the landlord could be for a ninety year lease extension. Comparable flats in West Wickham with an extended lease were in the region of £295,000. The average amount of ground rent was £45 collected annually. The lease finished on 6 February 2100. Taking into account 74 years outstanding we estimated the premium to the landlord for the lease extension to be between £8,600 and £9,800 not including costs.
An example of a Freehold Enfranchisement decision for a West Wickham property is 26 Manor Road in July 2010. the Tribunal decided that price to be paid for the freehold was £12,420 This case related to 2 flats. The unexpired residue of the current lease was 76.75 and 88.83.