As a Leaseholder, you can extend your lease by following the procedure in the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993. One condition is that you must have owned the property for two years.
The lease of your flat gets shorter every year. If you let the length of your lease drop too low, it can reduce the value of your property. The shorter the lease the more expensive it will be to extend. If your lease is less than 80 years, then it may become more difficult to sell your leasehold property, so it is important to apply to extend it.
Once your lease has been extended, you no longer have to pay ground rent, although it may be still be in your lease, it is called 'peppercorn' rent - this means you don't have to pay any. Also, an extra 90 years will be added on to your remaining lease term, in return for a payment called a ‘premium’. For example, following a statutory extension, an 89 year lease becomes a 179 year lease.
The Sales and Leasing team do not provide advice or provide an indication as to the premium. We therefore suggest that prior to making an application to extend your lease, you should seek independent advice.
You can obtain information on the Leasehold Advisory Service website.
In addition to this, they provides the Leasehold Advisory Service's online calculator which may assist in establishing what the premium may be for extending your lease.
We recommend that you seek your own professional advice from a solicitor and a surveyor about any application for extension of the Lease. Please refer to the guidelines, which will help you to understand the process.
Lease extension guidelines (PDF, 97 KB)
If you decide to proceed, then you would need to appoint a solicitor to submit a formal notice under section 42 of the Leasehold Reform Housing and Urban Development Act 1993, to:
By email: Leasehold@lbbd.gov.uk
By post: Town Hall, 1 Town Square, Barking, Essex IG11 7LU.