Lease Extension Solicitor – do I need one?
Lease extensions can prove tricky. Your landlord is almost certain to employ a solicitor who knows what they’re doing with regard to lease extension law, and the law itself is quite complex with traps for the unwary. If you’re planning to extend the lease on your flat and you want your lease extension to go through smoothly and swiftly, there are several reasons why you need to get specialist lease extension advice and hire the right experienced solicitor to help you.
o Both the law and procedure surrounding any lease extension is complex –only are there deadlines which are easy to miss, but the Leasehold Reform, Housing & Urban Development Act 1993 [which is the legislation governing leasehold extensions] is pretty inaccessible if you aren’t a trained lawyer. An experienced lease extension solicitor will be able to explain the requirements you need to meet and what you need to do first – which is important as you obviously need to know whether or not you are eligible for lease extension.
o An experienced lease extension solicitor will also help you gather all the necessary information to proceed with lease extension and assist you in finding a specialist surveyor to carry out your lease extension valuation – like your solicitor, you must make sure that whoever values your lease extension is a specialist – very few surveyors are. Your solicitor will prepare all the necessary legal documents for you – including the Notice you need to serve to your landlord to start the whole formal lease extension process, and will make sure that your application sticks to the rigid timetable required
o A specialist lease extension solicitor can help you if your landlord does not cooperate – perhaps by turning down your request or haggling with you over the price of your lease extension. They will advise you on how to act during negotiations with your landlord – or handle the negotiations for you – and if you can’t agree a fair price for your lease extension with your landlord, they have the expertise to help you at a Leasehold Valuation Tribunal.
o Your speciliast solicitor can check the lease extension documentation for you to ensure that your freeholder does not try to sneakily amend your lease by changing existing terms of inserting terms that are onerous to you. If you go ahead and try to agree the documentation without a solicitor you will be bound by whatever you sign; it will not be sufficient to say that you did not know the legal nature and effect of what you were signing. Such amendments may make the flat unattractive to future buyers and so make the flat difficult to sell.
o Your solicitor will also be able to deal with all post-completion matters, inlcuding registering the lease extension at HM Land Registry.
For advice to trust from specialist Lease Extension Solicitors, call us today
o For FREE initial phone advice, phone our team on (01722) 422300 or
o E-mail advice@leaseextensionuk.co.uk