Lease extension and freehold purchase solicitors in Westminster
Three of London’s great estates hold substantial freeholds here — Grosvenor in Mayfair and Belgravia, Portman and Howard de Walden in Marylebone — and head leases with intermediate landlords are the norm. At these values the terms of the new lease can matter as much as the premium.
Acting for leaseholders across Westminster
We act for leaseholders across the City of Westminster — Mayfair, Belgravia, Marylebone, Fitzrovia, Pimlico, Victoria, Bayswater, Maida Vale and St John’s Wood — on lease extensions and collective freehold purchases.
Westminster is the borough where title structures are most layered. A flat may sit beneath a head lease, an intermediate lease and a freehold held by an estate that has owned the land for three centuries, and establishing who the competent landlord is comes before anything else.
It is also the borough where the drafting matters most, because at these values a single altered covenant applied across a 180-year term is worth a great deal of money.
Layered titles, and why the drafting is worth as much as the price
Two features distinguish a Westminster claim from one almost anywhere else.
The title is layered. Where a freeholder granted a long head lease and the head lessee granted the flat leases — sometimes with a further tier beneath — the statutory claim must be directed at the competent landlord: the one whose interest is long enough to grant the new lease you are entitled to. That is determined from the titles, not from the demands. Every intermediate landlord is entitled to notice, the premium is apportioned between the interests, and each may instruct its own solicitor and valuer whose reasonable costs you meet.
And the drafting carries real money. An estate landlord issues its own standard form of new lease, drafted for use across a portfolio and naturally in its own interest — modernised service charge machinery, wider recovery provisions, new rights reserved over roofs and airspace, revised alterations covenants.
The Act requires the new lease to be on the same terms as your existing one, save for the additional ninety years, the peppercorn rent and the modifications it permits. Against a portfolio landlord’s standard form that protection has to be asserted clause by clause against the lease you actually hold. On a flat of Westminster value over a 180-year term, a service charge apportionment converted into a landlord’s discretion can be worth more than the sum being argued about on premium.
Which is the whole argument for instructing a solicitor who reads the draft properly rather than one who checks it is signed in the right place.
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 Westminster
Westminster City Council is freeholder of a substantial Right to Buy stock, including around Church Street, Paddington and Pimlico.
The Grosvenor Estate holds freeholds across Mayfair and Belgravia, the Portman Estate and the Howard de Walden Estate across Marylebone, and the Crown Estate holds interests in parts of the borough. Housing associations here include Peabody, Notting Hill Genesis, Clarion Housing Group and Octavia.
Institutional and overseas investor freeholders hold portfolios throughout, frequently through head lease structures with one or more intermediate interests between the freeholder and the flat.
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 Westminster 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
My freeholder is one of the great estates — can I still extend as of right?
Yes. A statutory lease extension is a right and does not depend on the landlord’s identity or willingness. Estate landlords deal with claims constantly and the process is usually predictable; what needs attention is the standard form of new lease they issue.
What is a competent landlord and why does it matter in Westminster?
It is the landlord whose interest is long enough to grant the new lease you are claiming, and it is determined from the titles rather than from your demands. In a borough where head leases are common, serving the wrong party is a real and expensive risk.
Does an intermediate landlord make the claim more expensive?
Generally yes. Each additional party may instruct its own solicitor and valuer whose reasonable costs you meet, and there is more work in the claim itself. Our fee schedule reflects that from £350 plus VAT for each additional landlord or third party.
The estate has sent its own form of new lease — do I have to accept it?
No. On a statutory claim the new lease must be on the same terms as your existing lease, save for the extra ninety years, the peppercorn rent and the narrow modifications the Act permits. A landlord’s standard form is a starting point, and each departure needs justifying.
Tell us about your Westminster 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.