Leasehold Property law. Personally delivered.
Leasehold Property law. Personally delivered.
A variation needs your landlord's agreement. A statutory lease extension does not. How London leaseholders should choose between them.
Reviewed 25 July 2026
There are two routes to the same outcome and they are not equally good. One depends entirely on your landlord's goodwill.
Most lenders now decline to lend on leases with ground rents that double at fixed intervals, and several treat rents above a proportion of the property's value as onerous in their own right. The leaseholder usually discovers this when a buyer's lender declines, by which point a price has been agreed and a chain has formed.
A deed of variation can cap or extinguish the ground rent, leaving everything else in the lease untouched. Where the landlord is co-operative and the lease is otherwise long, it is often the quicker and cheaper answer.
The difficulty is that a landlord is under no obligation to agree. There is no timetable, no price control and no tribunal: the First-tier Tribunal has no jurisdiction over a voluntary negotiation, and section 35 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 cannot be used to vary a ground rent — its grounds are a closed list and rent is not among them. A landlord who senses that a sale depends on agreement is in a strong position, and some price accordingly.
A lease extension under the 1993 Act adds ninety years and reduces the ground rent to a peppercorn for the whole of the new term — including the balance of your existing lease. It does not depend on the landlord agreeing to anything. The price is set by a statutory formula and determined by the Tribunal if it is not agreed, and the timetable is enforceable.
It costs more at the outset, because a valuation and a notice are required. Where the lease is short it frequently costs little more overall, and it solves the term as well as the rent.
Obtain a valuation of the statutory premium first, so the landlord's figure can be judged rather than guessed at. Where the lease is long and the only defect is the rent, a variation may well be cheaper. Where the lease is anywhere near eighty years, or the landlord is slow, the statutory route is usually the better bet — and the mere fact that a notice can be served tends to concentrate a landlord's mind.
If a lender has raised the ground rent on your flat, send us the lease and we will price both routes before you commit to either.
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This article reflects our understanding of the position on 25 July 2026 and is general information rather than legal advice. The law in this area is changing: take advice on your own circumstances before relying on it.
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