Lease extension and freehold purchase solicitors in Merton
Merton is where our office is. We act across Wimbledon, Raynes Park, Morden, Mitcham and Colliers Wood — and in this borough, unlike most of our work, you can put the lease on a table and go through it with the solicitor who will handle it.
Acting for leaseholders across Merton
We are at 15 Approach Road, two minutes from Raynes Park station. Merton is not a borough we cover — it is the one we work in, and a good deal of what we do here involves buildings we walk past.
The borough divides into two leasehold markets that behave quite differently. Wimbledon and Wimbledon Village carry Edwardian mansion blocks and large period conversions, many with leases now short enough to be affecting value. Morden, Mitcham and Colliers Wood carry a substantial stock of former council flats and maisonettes sold under Right to Buy.
Both are dealt with here, by the same people, on fixed fees agreed before we start.
Why being local actually matters here
For most of our work it does not. Enfranchisement is conducted almost entirely in correspondence, the statutory framework is identical across England and Wales, and we act for clients in Hong Kong and Dubai as readily as in Wimbledon. Being nearby is convenience rather than advantage.
In Merton it is a little different, for three practical reasons.
You can come in. A lease is a difficult document to discuss on the telephone. Where a client can put it on a table, turn to the clause that is worrying them and have it explained, the conversation is shorter and better.
We know the buildings. When a Merton leaseholder describes a block on Worple Road or an estate off London Road, we usually know it — and frequently we have seen the lease before, because the leases in a block are almost always in the same form.
And we know the landlords. Merton Council, the associations holding former council stock, and the investor freeholders who bought up ground rents across the Wimbledon and Raynes Park blocks. Knowing which will negotiate on drafting and which will not saves months.
If you already own your freehold
A large number of Merton buildings were bought by their leaseholders years ago, and a recurring local problem follows: the freehold was acquired and then nothing further was done.
The leases continue exactly as they were. Owning a share of the freehold does not lengthen a lease, and we regularly see Merton buildings where the leaseholders have owned the freehold for fifteen years and the leases are now under seventy. Granting new 999-year leases at a peppercorn is a separate exercise — but a straightforward one, because the company granting them is the one you control.
It is also the moment to fix everything else. Service charge percentages that do not total 100%, repairing obligations that leave part of the building unallocated, no reserve fund power, no mutual enforcement covenant. The company controls the drafting and can adopt a single precedent for every flat.
And the company itself needs attention. Filings up to date, the register of members matching the flats, shares that actually transferred on each sale, and — with a deadline in November 2026 — every director verified at Companies House. A freehold company that is struck off loses the freehold to the Crown.
The part the valuer does not do
A lease extension has two halves. One is the premium — a valuation exercise, and the reason to instruct a specialist surveyor. The other is the document you are handed at the end, and it is where a leaseholder is most exposed and least likely to be looking.
On a statutory claim under the 1993 Act the new lease must be granted on the same terms as the existing lease, save for the additional 90 years, the peppercorn rent, and a narrow set of modifications the Act permits — broadly to reflect changes to the property since the original grant, to deal with an interest the landlord no longer holds, or to remedy a genuine defect.
That is a protection, and it is only worth what the solicitor reading the draft makes of it. Landlords’ solicitors will frequently send a draft that is not a copy of your lease at all, and unless somebody compares the two line by line, the changes complete with the extension and bind you for the next century and a half. We check the draft against your existing lease clause by clause, and we resist anything the legislation does not permit.
What we look for in a landlord’s draft
Changes that alter what you pay. Service charge apportionment quietly replaced with “a fair proportion as determined by the landlord”. Widened recovery provisions for management costs, professional fees and reserve funds. New administration charges. Insurance commission made recoverable. Repairing obligations shifted from landlord to leaseholder.
Changes that alter what you may do. A qualified alterations covenant turned absolute, removing the statutory protection that consent may not be unreasonably withheld. New restrictions on subletting or short-term letting. Rights newly reserved to the landlord to build on the roof or run services through your flat. Wider forfeiture provisions, or indemnity covenants the original lease never contained.
None of this is hypothetical, and very little of it is announced. It arrives as a clean engrossment described as being “in the same form as the existing lease”, and it is found only by comparison. Some modifications are legitimate — our job is to distinguish those from the ones that simply improve the landlord’s position, and to say so in writing before anything is agreed.
Landlords and housing associations in Merton
Merton Council remains the freeholder of flats and maisonettes across the borough sold under Right to Buy. Local authority legal departments work to settled procedures and standard forms of new lease, which usually makes the timetable predictable — provided the drafting is checked rather than accepted as issued.
A housing association may hold the freehold instead. A substantial part of Merton’s former council housing was transferred out of council ownership under a stock transfer, and leaseholders who bought from the council years ago sometimes find their landlord is now an association such as Clarion Housing Group. Establishing who actually holds the reversion is the first step, and it is not always the name on the demands.
Investor freeholders hold ground rent portfolios across the Wimbledon, Raynes Park and Colliers Wood blocks, and other associations active here include Peabody and Metropolitan Thames Valley. A great many Merton buildings are also owned by their own leaseholders.
Areas we cover
Who does what
The valuation
The premium is a question of valuation evidence rather than legal argument, and it needs a surveyor who acts on enfranchisement claims regularly. A specialist valuer appraises the flat, advises on the figure to propose and the range within which to settle, negotiates with the landlord’s surveyor and gives expert evidence at the Tribunal if it comes to that. We work closely with Blakes Chartered Surveyors, and you are free to instruct any valuer you wish.
The legal work
Establishing entitlement, identifying every landlord who must be served, drafting and serving a notice that will withstand scrutiny, running the statutory timetable — and negotiating the terms of the new lease itself. The two roles are not sequential: the figure in your section 42 notice is a joint decision, which is why we involve a valuer from the first conversation rather than after the notice has been drafted.
Or have both handled together
Packaged fixed fees combining the legal work, the valuation and the negotiation are available through extension.lease, run jointly by Arcadia Law and Blakes Chartered Surveyors — often the simplest and most cost-effective route for a single flat.
Estimate your premium
Our lease extension calculator gives an indicative premium range from three figures: the unexpired term, the ground rent payable and the value of your flat. It is a starting point for a conversation rather than a valuation, but it will tell you the order of magnitude before you commit to anything.
If your flat has fewer than 90 years remaining, or a ground rent that rises at intervals of less than twenty years, it is worth running the numbers now rather than at the point you decide to sell.
Fees
Fixed fees wherever possible, agreed before we start. The figures below are starting points for straightforward matters; we will give you a tailored quote once we have seen the lease.
Group and block discounts are available where several leaseholders in the same building instruct together, priced as one exercise rather than a claim per flat. Freehold purchases are priced per participating flat from £1,250 + VAT. On a statutory claim you are also responsible for the landlord’s reasonable legal and valuation costs, which can be challenged — the costs of the negotiation itself and of any Tribunal proceedings are not recoverable from you.
Our other work for Merton clients
Lease extensions and freehold purchases are the bulk of what we do, but not all of it. Residential conveyancing — sale and purchase of houses and flats, freehold and leasehold — sits naturally alongside a lease extension where a sale is in prospect. Landlords and management companies — service charges, section 20 consultation, arrears, consents, company filings and the transactional work every sale generates. And the documents: deeds of variation, licences to alter, lease and title reviews, and independent legal advice for guarantors and directors.
Why instruct Arcadia Law
We read the lease you are being given, not just the one you have — every draft is compared clause by clause against the existing lease, and anything the legislation does not permit is resisted. Specialists, not generalists, and members of the Association of Leasehold Enfranchisement Practitioners. We act across all thirty-two London boroughs and know how the local authority legal departments and the larger investor freeholders operate. We act for landlords as well as leaseholders, which is why we know where a landlord’s position will and will not hold — conflicts are checked before we take instructions. Tribunal and court where it is warranted, weighed against the costs, the risk and the time, which for many claims points the other way.
Common questions
Do you have an office in Merton?
Yes — 15 Approach Road, two minutes’ walk from Raynes Park station, with pay and display parking on the street. It is our only office, so the people you meet are the people handling your matter.
Can I bring my lease in and go through it with someone?
Yes, and Merton clients often do. A lease is difficult to discuss on the telephone, and going through it across a table is usually shorter and clearer. Telephone first so we can make sure the right person is free.
Merton Council is my freeholder — how does that change things?
It does not change your entitlement. Local authorities work to settled procedures and standard forms of new lease, which usually makes the timetable predictable. What it does mean is that the draft new lease should be checked rather than accepted as issued.
I bought from the council but my landlord is now a housing association — why?
A substantial part of Merton’s former council housing was transferred out of council ownership under a stock transfer, so the freehold may now sit with an association rather than the council. Establishing who holds the reversion is the first step.
We own our freehold but our leases are still short — what do we do?
Grant yourselves new 999-year leases at a peppercorn. It is a separate exercise from buying the freehold, but a straightforward one because the company granting them is the one you control.
There are only two flats in our house — can we buy the freehold?
Only if both of you take part. In a two-flat building the Act requires both qualifying leaseholders to participate, so a single refusal ends the claim. Given how many Raynes Park and Wimbledon houses are two-flat conversions, it is the first thing we check.
Tell us about your Merton flat
The address, the unexpired term and the ground rent if you know them, and who your freeholder is. If you have received an offer from your landlord, send that too. We will tell you where you stand, what a claim is likely to cost, whether the statutory or voluntary route suits you better — and, if an offer has been made, what is actually in it. The first conversation is at no cost.