Lease extension and freehold purchase solicitors in Hillingdon
Much of Hillingdon’s leasehold stock is recent, so lease length is rarely the problem. The problem is the ground rent — and where the term is long, a deed of variation may serve better and cost less than an extension.
Acting for leaseholders across Hillingdon
We act for leaseholders across the London Borough of Hillingdon — Uxbridge, Hayes, Yiewsley, Ruislip, Northwood, Ickenham and Hillingdon — on lease extensions, deeds of variation and freehold purchases.
The borough’s newer developments at Uxbridge and Hayes were largely sold on long leases with escalating ground rents, and it is those provisions rather than the term that now make a flat difficult to mortgage or sell.
Ruislip, Northwood and the older suburban stock are more conventional, with interwar blocks and maisonettes where lease length is the ordinary concern.
Variation or extension, when the rent is the problem
Where a lease has 950 years to run and an escalating ground rent, extending it by ninety years is not the point. Two routes lead to the same outcome and they are not equally reliable.
A deed of variation can cap or extinguish the ground rent and leave everything else untouched. Where the landlord is co-operative it is quicker and cheaper, and our fee starts at £1,250 plus VAT.
But nothing compels a landlord to agree. There is no timetable, no price control and no tribunal: section 35 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 cannot be used to reduce a ground rent, its grounds being a closed list that does not include rent. A landlord who senses that a sale depends on agreement is in a strong position and some price accordingly.
A statutory lease extension reduces the ground rent to a peppercorn for the whole of the new term as of right, and does not depend on the landlord agreeing to anything. It costs more at the outset and takes longer, but the timetable is enforceable and the price is determined by the Tribunal if it cannot be agreed.
Our advice is usually to price both before choosing. Obtain a valuation of the statutory premium first, so the landlord’s figure for a variation can be judged rather than guessed at. Where the landlord is slow or the figure is unreasonable, the fact that a notice can be served tends to concentrate matters.
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 Hillingdon
The London Borough of Hillingdon is freeholder of Right to Buy stock across the borough.
Housing associations with holdings here include A2Dominion, Clarion Housing Group, Paradigm Housing and L&Q.
Developer-linked management companies operate across the Hayes and Uxbridge schemes, and institutional ground rent investors hold portfolios in the newer developments — the landlords most likely to have a published position on variations, and the ones where knowing that position saves time.
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 Hillingdon 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 ground rent doubles every ten years — what can be done about it?
Either a deed of variation, if the landlord agrees, or a statutory lease extension, which reduces the rent to a peppercorn as of right. The first is cheaper and quicker but depends entirely on goodwill; the second is enforceable. It is worth pricing both.
Is a deed of variation cheaper than a lease extension for a ground rent problem?
Usually yes — our fee starts at £1,250 plus VAT and there is no ninety-year premium to pay. The difficulty is that nothing compels a landlord to agree one, and section 35 of the 1987 Act cannot be used to reduce a ground rent.
My lease has 950 years left — is an extension pointless?
For the term, yes. But a statutory extension also reduces the ground rent to a peppercorn as of right, which is the only way to achieve that without the landlord’s agreement. Where a lender has objected to the rent, that may be the point of it.
Why does my lender care about the ground rent at all?
Because an escalating rent can become a significant proportion of the property’s value over time, and because a rent above a certain level can affect the security. Criteria vary, but rents above around 0.1% of value, or reviewing more often than every twenty years, tend to attract attention.
Tell us about your Hillingdon 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.