Lease extension and freehold purchase solicitors in Havering
Havering’s flatted stock is dominated by two building types that raise the same underlying question: converted maisonettes and flats above shopping parades. In both, what the lease actually demises is far less obvious than it looks.
Acting for leaseholders across Havering
We act for leaseholders across the London Borough of Havering — Romford, Hornchurch, Upminster, Rainham, Harold Hill and Collier Row — on lease extensions and freehold purchases.
Leasehold is less dominant here than in inner London, and much of it sits in buildings that were not purpose-built as flats: houses divided into maisonettes, and residential accommodation over shops.
Both types produce leases where the extent of the demise, the repairing obligations and the service charge machinery need reading carefully — and where the freeholder may be the owner of the shop below rather than a property company.
Flats above shops, and what that means for your rights
A flat over a parade is a perfectly ordinary long lease and carries the ordinary right to a statutory extension. Buying the freehold is a different question.
For a collective purchase the building must be no more than 25% non-residential by internal floor area, disregarding common parts. Over a single shop with two flats above, that is frequently satisfied. Over a large retail unit with one flat above, frequently not. It is a measurement, and it is worth having done before a group spends money on a valuation.
Your freeholder is often the shop owner. That changes the dynamic: they are not a professional ground rent investor with a standard procedure, they may never have dealt with a claim before, and they may be far more concerned about their own commercial interests in the building than about the premium. Sometimes that makes them easier to deal with; sometimes considerably harder.
And the demise needs checking with unusual care. Where a residential flat sits over commercial premises, questions about the structure between them, shared drainage and services, refuse arrangements, access and fire safety are all more likely to be badly dealt with in the lease — and more likely to matter.
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 Havering
The London Borough of Havering is freeholder of Right to Buy stock across Harold Hill, Collier Row, Rainham and the borough’s estates.
Housing associations operating here include Clarion Housing Group, Peabody, L&Q and Hyde Housing.
Private freeholders in Havering are frequently the owners of the commercial premises beneath the flats, or small family companies holding a parade. Investor freeholders also hold ground rent portfolios across the ex-council and purpose-built stock.
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 Havering 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
I own a flat above a shop — can I extend my lease?
Yes. A flat above commercial premises is an ordinary long lease and carries the ordinary statutory right to a ninety-year extension at a peppercorn rent, whatever is underneath it.
Does the shop stop us buying the freehold?
Only if the non-residential internal floor area exceeds 25% of the whole, disregarding common parts. Over a single shop with two or three flats above it is often within the limit; over a large unit with one flat above it usually is not. It should be measured rather than assumed.
My freeholder owns the shop below — does that make things harder?
Sometimes. They are unlikely to have a standard procedure and may care more about their commercial position in the building than about the premium. That can make them easier to deal with or considerably harder, and it is worth taking advice on the approach before writing.
What exactly does my maisonette lease include?
It depends on the wording, and maisonette leases are frequently less careful than those in purpose-built blocks. Roof structure, loft void, external walls, foundations, garden and path may or may not be included — and the answer determines who repairs them.
Tell us about your Havering 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.