Leasehold Property law. Personally delivered.
Leasehold Property law. Personally delivered.
We act for leaseholders extending their leases and for landlords responding to claims — statutory and voluntary, across London and nationwide. Fixed fees, senior oversight, and a valuer alongside from the first conversation.
ALEP member · Regulated by the SRA · Acting for leaseholders and landlords · London and nationwide
A lease extension adds years to the term of a leasehold flat. Under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993, a qualifying leaseholder has a statutory right to a new lease of 90 years on top of the unexpired term, at a peppercorn ground rent — in other words, no ground rent at all for the whole of the new term.
The landlord cannot refuse. What is negotiated is the premium, and if it cannot be agreed the First-tier Tribunal determines it. A lease can alternatively be extended informally by agreement with the landlord, on whatever terms the two sides accept.
A starting point for the conversation, not a valuation. Enter the unexpired term, the ground rent payable and an estimate of your flat’s value with a long lease for an indicative premium range. For the full calculator with a detailed breakdown, see the Lease Extension Calculator.
Calculated under Schedule 13 to the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993
Indicative premium range
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Relativity is derived from a graduated relativity curve applying conventional assumptions. This is a simplified, non-binding estimate for guidance only — it does not account for onerous or unusual ground rent terms, development value, or comparable evidence specific to your building. For a figure you can rely on in negotiation with your landlord, get a formal valuation from an RICS Registered Valuer, such as our colleagues at Blakes Chartered Surveyors.
A lease is a wasting asset. Every year the term shortens and the flat is worth marginally less — slowly at first, then quickly. Two figures matter, and they do different things.
Ninety years is where the market starts to notice. Lender criteria vary, and no single threshold applies across the board, but in our experience caution begins to show where the unexpired term falls below ninety years, where the ground rent exceeds around 0.1% of the market value of the flat, or where the rent is subject to review at intervals of less than twenty years. Any one of those can narrow the pool of buyers who are able to obtain a mortgage.
Eighty years is where the law changes. Once the unexpired term falls below eighty years the premium includes an element called marriage value, and the landlord is entitled to half of it. It does not creep in gradually: it applies the moment the lease crosses the line, and the line is measured on the day your notice is served.
Extending early protects value, keeps the flat mortgageable, widens the market of future buyers, and removes the ground rent altogether.
Both are available and neither is automatically better. The right choice depends on your lease, your landlord and your timetable.
Voluntary extensions can be excellent — particularly where a landlord offers 999 years at a peppercorn, or where the leaseholders own the freehold themselves. They can also stall indefinitely, because nothing compels a landlord to respond. We benchmark every informal offer against the statutory alternative before advising you to accept it.
Most leaseholders of flats do. You will generally have the right to a statutory lease extension if your lease was originally granted for a term of more than 21 years — what matters is the term originally granted, not the term remaining. A 99-year lease with 62 years left still qualifies.
There is no minimum period of ownership. You can serve notice as soon as you are registered as proprietor of the flat. You do not need to live there, and buy-to-let and second-home owners have the same rights as owner-occupiers.
A small number of leases fall outside the scheme — business leases, certain charitable housing trust properties, and a few other statutory exclusions. If you are unsure, send us the lease and we will tell you within a day or two.
A straightforward statutory claim takes six to twelve months from valuation to registration.
We confirm your entitlement, obtain the title and identify every landlord who must be served. In parallel a specialist valuer inspects and advises on the premium — both the figure to open at and the range within which the claim should settle.
We serve notice on the landlord and any intermediate landlord, proposing the premium and the terms. The notice starts the statutory timetable and fixes the valuation date. Defects can invalidate a claim, so this is where specialist drafting earns its keep.
The landlord must respond by the date specified. The counter-notice admits the claim and either accepts your terms or proposes different ones. The landlord may also require a deposit and access for their own valuation.
The valuers negotiate the premium; the solicitors negotiate the lease. Most claims settle here. Optimistic opening positions from a landlord's surveyor are routine and are answered with evidence.
Either party may apply to the First-tier Tribunal to determine the premium and terms. The application must be made no earlier than two months and no later than six months after the counter-notice — miss that window and the claim is deemed withdrawn.
The new lease is completed, the premium paid and the lease registered. Where the flat is mortgaged, your lender's requirements are dealt with at the same time.
The law of lease extensions is largely settled. What is in dispute in almost every claim is the price — and price is a question of valuation evidence rather than legal argument.
A specialist enfranchisement 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. An internal inspection is not always necessary — many appraisals are carried out from the lease, the title, comparable evidence and an external view.
This is not a mortgage valuation or an agent's appraisal. It is built from the ground rent given up, the deferred value of the landlord's reversion, relativity, and the deferment and capitalisation rates — argued from Tribunal decisions rather than read off comparable sales.
Establishing entitlement, identifying every landlord who must be served, drafting and serving a notice that will withstand scrutiny, negotiating the terms of the new lease, running the statutory timetable and completing and registering the transaction.
The two roles are not sequential. The figure that goes into the section 42 notice is a joint decision: propose too much and you surrender negotiating room; too little and you invite a counter-notice that treats the claim as unserious.
That is why we involve a valuer from the first conversation rather than after the notice has been drafted.
We work closely with Blakes Chartered Surveyors, RICS registered valuers specialising in leasehold enfranchisement, and packaged fixed fees combining legal work, valuation and negotiation are available through extension.lease. You are free to instruct any valuer you wish, and we are glad to work alongside one you already know.
A significant part of our practice is on the other side of the table. We advise freeholders, investor landlords, resident management companies, housing associations and family trusts who have received a section 42 notice — from checking its validity and serving the counter-notice through to negotiation, Tribunal and completion.
That is not incidental to the leaseholder work. When we tell a leaseholder what a landlord is likely to accept, we are drawing on having advised landlords on exactly that question.
Different landlords behave in different ways, and knowing which you are dealing with shapes the strategy from day one — a large estate with a published policy is a different proposition from an absent individual, a company in administration or a resident management company run by neighbours. We have advised on matters involving all 32 London borough councils, major housing associations and London’s major landlords and freeholders.
We check for conflicts before we take instructions, and we will not allow one to arise. Where we already act for the other side of a matter, or for a landlord whose interests would conflict with yours, we will tell you at the outset and, where we can, point you to another specialist firm.
Leasehold enfranchisement is a technical field in which procedural error is expensive and difficult to undo. This is what we do every day, and we are members of the Association of Leasehold Enfranchisement Practitioners.
Between them our solicitors have handled more than twenty thousand informal and statutory lease extensions. That means we have almost certainly dealt with your scenario before — your type of landlord, your lease length, your building and your location — and can tell you early what is routine and what is not.
Every matter is supervised by a senior solicitor. Routine procedural elements are handled by our paralegal team, which keeps costs proportionate without diluting the judgement applied to the decisions that matter.
We are direct about what a claim is likely to cost, what it is likely to achieve and where the leverage lies. Where the sensible course is to settle, we say so. Where a landlord's position will not withstand scrutiny, we say that too.
Vesting order applications in the county court where a landlord cannot be found, and applications under section 49 where a counter-notice never arrives. A claim that requires proceedings does not have to be passed to another firm.
We are experienced in lodging applications to the First-tier Tribunal and the county court where that is what achieves the best outcome for a client — weighed against the costs, the risk and the time involved, which for many claims points the other way. In the most contentious matters our solicitors collaborate with leading counsel for advocacy.
We work to 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. Disbursements are third-party costs we incur on your behalf and recharge to you at cost.
Discounts for group and block instructions. Where several leaseholders in the same building instruct us together, or a landlord instructs us on multiple claims, our fees are reduced accordingly. Tell us how many flats are involved and we will price it as one exercise.
Packaged fees through extension.lease. Fixed fees combining the legal work, the valuation and the negotiation — with disbursements included — are available through extension.lease, which is often the simplest and most cost-effective route for a single flat.
The landlord's costs. Under the current law you are also responsible for the landlord's reasonable legal and valuation costs of dealing with a statutory claim. Those costs are capable of being challenged, and the costs of the negotiation itself and of any Tribunal proceedings are not recoverable from you.
Stamp duty land tax. SDLT may be payable on the premium where it exceeds the relevant threshold. On most flat lease extensions no duty arises, but it should be checked rather than assumed, particularly on higher-value premiums and where you own other property.
A straightforward statutory claim takes six to twelve months from valuation to registration. A voluntary extension can be quicker where the landlord is co-operative, but has no timetable at all and can take considerably longer.
The increase in the combined value of the leasehold and freehold interests when they are merged. Where the unexpired term is below 80 years, half of it is payable to the landlord — which is why extending before the lease reaches 80 years matters so much.
Yes. Where a landlord is genuinely untraceable, you apply to the county court for a vesting order: the court dispenses with the notice, the Tribunal fixes the premium and a judge signs the new lease on the landlord's behalf.
Yes. The benefit of a claim can be assigned to your buyer, though the assignment must happen at the same time as the transfer of the lease or the claim is lost. A price adjustment allowing the buyer to serve their own notice after completion is frequently simpler, and is now the more common route.
The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 would abolish marriage value and extend leases by 990 years, but those provisions are not in force and no commencement date has been given. For most leaseholders the risk of waiting outweighs the possible saving — particularly where the lease is near 80 years.
For a statutory claim, yes. The premium is a question of valuation evidence, and the figure that goes into your notice is a tactical decision taken jointly. We can introduce you to specialist enfranchisement valuers or work alongside one you have chosen.
There are four elements: the premium payable to your landlord, your solicitor's fees (from £1,750 plus VAT for a straightforward statutory claim), your valuer's fee, and the landlord's reasonable legal and valuation costs. Disbursements such as Land Registry fees and bank charges are added at cost. Our calculator will give you an indicative premium, and we will quote a fixed fee once we have seen the lease.
Under Schedule 13 to the 1993 Act. The landlord is compensated for the ground rent they will no longer receive, for the delay in recovering the flat at the end of the term, and — where the unexpired term is below eighty years — for half the marriage value. The figures turn on the deferment and capitalisation rates and on relativity, which is why specialist valuation evidence matters.
The formal notice that begins a statutory lease extension claim. It sets out the premium you propose and the terms of the new lease, and it fixes the valuation date. A notice with defects can invalidate the whole claim, so it should always be drafted by a specialist.
Not if you qualify. A statutory claim is a right, not a request. Your landlord can dispute the premium and the terms, and there is a narrow ground on which possession can be sought for redevelopment towards the very end of a lease, but they cannot simply say no.
If no counter-notice is served by the date specified, you can apply to the county court under section 49 for a new lease on the terms set out in your own notice. In practice that is a strong position for a leaseholder, and a landlord who has missed the deadline usually finds the file quickly.
Only where the premium exceeds the relevant threshold. On most flat lease extensions no SDLT arises, but it should be checked rather than assumed — particularly on higher-value premiums, and where you own other property.
Not for a statutory claim. Section 58(4) of the 1993 Act transfers your lender's charge to the new lease automatically, so no consent is required to bring the claim. An informal extension is different: it surrenders the existing lease, so the lender must consent and a deed of substituted security is needed, which commonly adds several weeks.
Yes, and it is usually cheaper. Each leaseholder serves their own notice, but the work can be run together and our fees are discounted for group and block instructions. Where a majority of the building is interested, it is also worth comparing the cost of buying the freehold collectively.
On a statutory extension it is reduced to a peppercorn — no ground rent at all — for the whole of the new term, including the balance of your existing lease. On a voluntary extension the existing rent commonly continues until the original expiry date unless the landlord agrees otherwise, which is worth negotiating for.
Our client guides cover these subjects in considerably more depth than a web page can, and are free to download once published in our Knowledge Centre.
Client Guide 01The statutory process in full — eligibility, costs, timetable, complications and the reform position.
Download this guide (PDF) →
Client Guide 11Voluntary extensions, what landlords propose, and why so many become statutory claims.
Download this guide (PDF) →
Client Guide 05The current position on reform, and whether waiting is the right call on your facts.
Download this guide (PDF) →The full set of guides, a property and leasehold glossary and our latest insights will be gathered in our Knowledge Centre.
Send us the lease, or simply the address and the number of years remaining, and we will tell you where you stand, what a claim is likely to cost and whether the statutory or voluntary route suits you better. The first conversation is at no cost.
