Lease extension and freehold purchase solicitors in Sutton
A quiet suburban market where the freeholder is rarely the problem. What causes difficulty in Sutton is the lease itself — service charge machinery drafted for a different era, apportionments that do not total 100%, and no power to build a reserve fund.
Acting for leaseholders across Sutton
We act for leaseholders and freehold companies across the London Borough of Sutton — Sutton, Belmont, Cheam, Worcester Park, Carshalton, Wallington, Hackbridge and Beddington — on lease extensions, deeds of variation and freehold purchases.
Much of the borough’s leasehold stock is 1960s and 1970s purpose-built blocks. The buildings are sound and the landlords are frequently the leaseholders themselves, but the leases were drafted before modern service charge practice existed.
The result is buildings that cannot fund their own major works, apportionments that do not add up, and a discovery made at the worst moment — when the roof needs replacing or somebody tries to sell.
When the lease itself is the problem
A great many Sutton blocks have a lease that no longer works, and the question is what can actually be done about it.
Where the percentages do not add up, the position is good. Where the aggregate of the service charge percentages across the building exceeds or falls short of the landlord’s expenditure, the lease fails to make satisfactory provision and the First-tier Tribunal can vary it under section 35 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987. That is one of the clearest grounds available.
Where they total 100% but are distributed unfairly, the position is not. A studio paying the same percentage as a three-bedroom flat above it is unfair by any ordinary measure, but the arithmetic is satisfied and the Tribunal has no jurisdiction. The route then is agreement under section 37 — which for more than eight leases requires at least 75% of the parties to consent, with no more than 10% opposing.
Where there is no reserve fund power, the building cannot save for major works and every programme becomes a one-off demand. That is a service charge computation issue and is capable of being varied.
And where several leases share the defect, vary them together. The drafting is done once and applied across the block — our batch rate starts at £950 plus VAT per lease rather than £1,250 for an individual variation. Where the leaseholders own the freehold and are granting new leases anyway, the correction costs almost nothing at that point.
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 Sutton
The London Borough of Sutton is freeholder of part of the borough’s former council stock, with Sutton Housing Partnership managing much of the council’s housing.
Housing associations operating here include Clarion Housing Group, Peabody and Metropolitan Thames Valley.
Small private freeholders and resident-owned companies hold much of the purpose-built and conversion stock. Where the leaseholders are their own landlord, a variation is a matter of agreement among neighbours rather than negotiation with an opposing party — which makes it far easier, provided somebody organises it.
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 Sutton 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 service charge percentages do not add up to 100% — can that be corrected?
Yes, and it is one of the clearest grounds available. Where the aggregate exceeds or falls short of the landlord’s expenditure, the lease fails to make satisfactory provision and the Tribunal can vary it under section 35 of the 1987 Act.
The split is unfair but the percentages total 100% — can we change it?
Not through section 35: where the arithmetic works the ground is not made out, however inequitable the distribution. The route is agreement under section 37, which for more than eight leases requires at least 75% of the parties to consent with no more than 10% opposing.
Our lease has no reserve fund — how do we pay for major works?
Without a power to collect on account or hold a reserve, every programme becomes a one-off demand. It is a service charge computation issue and capable of being varied — and where the leaseholders own the freehold, it is straightforward to correct.
Can several leases be varied at once?
Yes, and it is markedly cheaper. Where the defect runs through every lease the drafting is done once and applied across the block — our batch rate starts at £950 plus VAT per lease against £1,250 for an individual variation.
Tell us about your Sutton 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.