Lease extension and freehold purchase solicitors in Ealing
Ealing’s leases are unusually likely to have three parties rather than two. Where a management company sits between the freeholder and the leaseholders, it has its own covenants, it must join in consents and variations, and it has to be dealt with in any claim.
Acting for leaseholders across Ealing
We act for leaseholders across the London Borough of Ealing — Ealing Broadway, Ealing Common, Acton, Southall, Hanwell, Greenford and Northolt — on lease extensions and freehold purchases.
The borough runs from Edwardian mansion blocks around the Broadway, through the Acton regeneration schemes, to the large modern developments at Southall. What ties a good deal of it together is the tripartite lease: freeholder, management company and leaseholder, each with obligations to the others.
That structure is perfectly sound when it works. It becomes a problem when the management company has been dissolved, has stopped functioning, or turns out to have obligations nobody has been performing.
When a management company is party to your lease
A tripartite lease names three parties: the freeholder, who owns the building; a management company, which covenants to provide services and maintain the structure; and you.
It changes who has to be involved. The company has its own covenants and its own obligations, so it is a party to any variation of the lease and to most consents. On a statutory lease extension it is a party to the claim, and its reasonable costs are payable alongside the landlord’s — which is why claims in this borough carry an additional-party charge more often than elsewhere.
It changes who you complain to. Where services are inadequate, the obligation may sit with the company rather than the freeholder, and pursuing the wrong party wastes months. Equally, where the company has failed, the freeholder may have a residual obligation — or may not, depending on the drafting.
And it creates a specific failure mode. Management companies formed at the point of development are frequently forgotten. Confirmation statements go unfiled, the company is struck off, and the building is left with a lease naming a party that no longer exists. Restoring the company is usually possible and it needs doing before anybody tries to sell — not during.
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 Ealing 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
Our lease has a management company as a third party — does it have to join in?
Yes, in most cases. A company that is party to the lease has its own covenants, so it is a party to a variation and to most consents, and it is a party to a statutory lease extension claim. Its reasonable costs are payable alongside the landlord’s.
Who is my landlord if a management company collects the service charge?
Not necessarily the company. Collecting money and owning the reversion are different things. The freeholder is established from the title, and on a statutory claim it is the competent landlord who must be served — which the demands will not tell you.
Our management company has been struck off — what now?
It usually needs restoring to the register, which is possible for a limited period and by a former member or director. Until it is, the building has a lease naming a party that does not exist, and any sale or variation is difficult. It is much better dealt with before a sale than during one.
The services are poor — do I pursue the freeholder or the company?
Whichever the lease says. In a tripartite lease the service obligations frequently sit with the management company rather than the freeholder, and pursuing the wrong party wastes months. It is a question the lease answers, and worth answering before writing letters.
Tell us about your Ealing 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.