What is Lease Extension?

Lease extension is the elongation of the time remaining on your lease for a number of years. Your lease gives you the right to live in your property with certain terms and conditions for a certain amount of time. This is usually 99 or 125 years. You can extend the amount of time remaining on your lease for 90years. A lease extension can be done on a long lease, short lease or a freehold flat.

Enfranchisement

The term enfranchisement relates generally to purchasing the freehold interest, which generally gives leaseholders, whether in a converted house or large block, greater control over management, and any premium paid to purchase a freehold can avoid the need for each leaseholder to pay a premium for extending the lease.

Advantages of Enfranchisement

There are several advantages to collective enfranchisement, examples are as follows:

  • When the new leases are granted they can be varied and used to iron out any discrepancies or defects in the original leases which do not comply with the requirements of the Council of Mortgage Lenders; this would make it harder to sell (or re-mortgage) or it would delay your sale (or re-mortgage) if a new Deed of Variation has to be drafted, agreed by all involved parties and registered.
  • It would give all leaseholders control of the management of the building.

 

Please call us on 0207 183 0084 or email us on property@olaleslie.com  if you want to extend your lease or want to explore buying the freehold and to ask us about any reservations or queries that you may have; we are always happy to assist.